▪ A 7.48 places you in Maverick territory — you are making creative decisions that transform the subject, not just recording it, and the atmospheric rendering here is evidence of that shift. ▪ To reach 9+, two things would need to align: a specific behavioural moment within the flock (one bird with neck extended in a feeding strike, two birds in a territorial display, a single bird lifting off while the rest remain still) AND the same tonal execution you achieved here. That frame would combine the atmospheric mood with a decisive instant, and the result would be singular. ▪ **Hiroshi Sugimoto** — his seascape work uses the same principle: reduce the subject to tone and atmosphere, hold the exposure at the edge of what the sensor can resolve, and let the mood do the work the detail usually does. Search: Hiroshi Sugimoto Seascapes. Your flamingo study is working in that same tradition.