I think it’s a young Sand Hill Crane - it was hanging around with these more mature ones and I bet they are a little family : )

That was 100% what I was thinking of when taking it! One of the first tunes I learned on guitar.

Such a pretty place!

Thanks! Was hanging precariously off the side of a dock to get it how I wanted, hah.

I really, really love it. I spent a few months on a gifted Canon Rebel T6 before I committed to the hobby and they are absolutely worlds apart. Besides the image quality and the ability to shoot great video (already done a few family trip videos), the eye auto focus is almost flawless. In the limited time to set up for certain shots that are happening it’s a dream to not have to worry much about that. Lets me focus on just the right aperture and other settings.

Thanks! Sony a7iv was used to shoot. The lens I’m rolling with for everything is the Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 GM. Once I knew this hobby wasn’t a phase, I chose to go with one quality fast prime to hone my composition and settings with. Barring the occasional shot I can’t get due to a lack of zoom, I really love what this combo has been doing for me!

For processing with HDR, I now find myself going to Luminar for the initial merge and then splitting contrast for shadows / mids / highlights there. Then I take everything else to Lightroom.

Sounds great - good luck!

Certainly striking, and you still get a good sense of the size from that one row

This is a nice idea! Is this for any sort of specific type of editing techniques or just anything goes?

Not much experience but:

What I liked - visual quality and lighting with that gradient into darkness. Tattoo on the finger is interesting and I felt naturally drawn to it.

I was having a tough time getting a certain emotion or vibe at a glance from the expression. Felt cropped in a bit tight for me personally.