Hitchin' a Ride, a photo from Hertfordshire, England

Photographer's Note

A great crested grebe.

A delightfully elegant waterbird with ornate head plumes which led to its being hunted for its feathers, almost leading to its extermination from the UK. They dive to feed and also to escape, preferring this to flying. On land they are clumsy because their feet are placed so far back on their bodies. They have an elaborate courtship display in which they rise out of the water and shake their heads. Very young grebes often ride on their parents' backs as was the case for this lucky youngster.

This was taken in Lee Valley Country Park near Cheshunt, Herts.

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Critiques | Translate

cerenguven (204) 2008-09-05 8:27

=) Couldn't be a better and funny tıtle for thıs shot.

TFS

C

AdrianW (2274) 2008-09-05 13:50

Nice shot David! Perfect timing with the little 'un poking his head out like that; and the reflection's great too :D

My only slight nits are that there seems to be a halo around the grebe itself (particularly down the back of the neck), and a there seems to be a slight lack of fine detail all over. How did the original unworked image look? If there's plenty of detail and no haloes it might be worth re-working it a little. I suspect the haloes are a sharpening artifact (USM? Radius 3px or so?); and if I were to guess, I'd say this was a hard crop? If so that might explain the lack of fine detail. Of course it's a Friday night, so I might simply be hallucinating it all ;)

Coco74 (87) 2008-10-13 7:51 [Comment]