Critique Welcomed Bird and Tower

[David Jones]

Corrin's Tower is on Peel hill up above the harbour and marina. I was up there to try out a Sony Alpha 57 but as luck would have it this bird (a crow, I think) appeared, hovering on the up-draught when I had my A35 in my hand. The bird was not going to hang around so here is an opportunistic shot converted to B+W. I do not make many B+W conversions as I like colour, but in this case it added to the drama and helped bring out the cloud structure.

On another forum it was suggested I narrowed down the border - in this version it is 6px in Photoshop against the original image size. I do not normally add borders and now realise it is yet another thing I should give a bit more thought to.


Corrin's Tower - thin border by berriff, on Flickr

 

[Rob MacKillop]

It's perfect in black and white. The border looks fine to me. I've made some big mistakes with borders, and some that did enhance the photo. The Art Of Bordering would be an interesting topic.

 

[David Jones]

Thanks Rob. This really was an instant when everything came together. Thank goodness I realised it.

 

[Lesley Jones]

I'm so glad you were able to capture this and converting to black and white was a perfect choice. It's a stunner and you use the borders you want

 

[Pete Askew]

That is a wonderful shot David. Beautifully (if spontaneously) composed and the B&W treatments suits perfectly I think. And the border is just enough to contain the image without intruding (my default is 10px and I either use black or the darkest tone at the edge of then image). I think Chris might have an idea what that bird was (and why it was there ).

 

[Glen Roberts]

Nice one David I like the B/W treatment for this shot.

BTW going by the shape of the tail I'd say it was a Raven and it probably nests up in the tower somewhere.

 

[David Jones]

A Raven sounds a lot better and thank you with the identification; I thought it was a bit on the small side but it might be a young specimen.

Edit: looking at a 1:1 crop it has a light-coloured beak so could possibly be a rook. There is some woodland not too far away. I got to the top of the tower last year during an open day and there were no nests up there.


1:1 crop of the bird by the tower: a rook? by berriff, on Flickr


From Peel Hill looking towards Marown and Douglas by berriff, on Flickr