When I focused on a resting Eared Grebe as it floated peacefully on glassy water reflecting a beautiful morning blue sky, there was not the slightest ripple on the water. I photographed, then waited, and in time the grebe raised its head and stretched its beak open as if to yawn, creating the slightest murmur of a ripple on the water, which may have added a bit of depth to the blue surface. That’s when I framed the grebe in the left side of the image with the tranquil water spread out before the waterbird.
To add a bit more length to the image, when I viewed it on my computer screen, I decided to crop a bit of the top and bottom out of the image, which I think added just the right amount of character to the scene. In the resulting photograph the water almost overpowers the grebe, but as always, the bird takes center stage, even when it is positioned far to the left side of the image. Try to inject more art into some images as you compose your bird photographs; for me, it seemed to be the surrounding colors that helped to inspire a little different look to some of the new photographs I’ve been taking the past couple days, and I wanted to pass along that insight into bird photography – Good Luck.
Article and Photograph by Paul Konrad
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