(AKA "I cannot see because I have no head" or "bird butt" - take your pick)
First, it should be obvious that this is a bird. :P
Second, it was anywhere between 10-30 degrees here this week and a lot of the pretty birds are in hiding. Plus I live an hour from the zoo. So I'm not going to be submitting any colorful pictures of birds this week.
This is a Canadian Goose. I'm fascinated by these birds for some reason. They usually travel in pairs and this one was alone. It was injured in some way and one of it's wings is broken. I saw it two times this week at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. I wonder if I will see it again.
So I am sure this will not do well because 1) it's not in color, and 2) people don't want to see a headless bird.
I just saw it hobbling across the ice, with it's wing in an obviously bad position, so I had to take a picture. I wanted the focus to be more on the wing and the feet walking across the ice, so the birdy head had to go.
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Michelle...what a powerful photograph. I would love to see you reprocess this and post a larger version. Absolutely stunning and moving, and have not read the details yet, but I can only imagine what it says.
I love Canadian Geese, too many stories...
ETA: Much better than my entry despite the score. I went for a straight portrait...
The processing looks a bit off, but holy emotion. I almost cried reading the title. I love the black and white choice, and I actually don't mind that he's headless. I think if he had a head, the wing would be less noticeable. The power of this image relies heavily on the viewer noticing the broken wing.
As for the processing, it looks like maybe the bird itself was maybe out of focus and in turn you over sharpened it trying to bring it in? The goose has a slight halo glow. Maybe this is a small crop from a larger image, and its lost some detail.
This is an amazing image Michelle...very underrated. I love the contrast and the composition...I like the crop and the headlessness :) I think it makes you think...great image
Wow, a bird picture that is quite unusual but still well done. I really like the different angle here, but more impressed that you still composed it extremely well. The puddle...it's what makes the picture work.
What a horrible thing to befall a migratory bird. You were right to focus it as you did, and compose it headless as you did - zeros right in on the point of the piece and makes it all the more poignant. B&W was absolutely the way to go with this one.
Ayee !! another underated shot in this challenge . .
This is such a good shot, and tells so much more of a story than just something sitting looking back at you (like I would have taken :- ))
This does what a picture should - it tells a story and connects with the viewer.
Although I have to admit it didn't seem to connect with that many in this case . . I can only hope some of them come back and take another look at leisure.
p.s. The title you used was perfect . . I wouldn't have said the same for 'Bird Butt' :- )
This was a really nice shot for the challenge simply because it was so different to the vast majority of images.
I thought the composition was fantastic, espially the way you captured the melting ice were the goose had walked. Really strong black and whire conversion as well. Mind you just looking at that wing made me wince
This was the first thumbnail I checked when glancing through the challenge. It's sad and poignant and I love that you did it in B&W and did not include the whole bird. Excellent.
love it, very good indeed, love the fact that it is not a whole bird, it expresses emotion all around here. the wing or lack of is clearly shown and you can see the damage. this shot grabs you and makes you look at all the details, 10 straight across the board
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