Double-striped Thick-Knee in Costa Rica

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I recently visited the beautiful tropical dry forest in north western Costa Rica.
In the first day my good friend Jessy López found this fantastic bird as we were driving by.
As soon as these birds see you they remain motionless and then fly way or are very skittish and don´t allow you to come closer.
I didn´t wanted to miss the opportunity given so I pull my 600 out of the car, no tripod, and started to approach the bird in a very inconspicuous fashion.
Little by little the bird started to feel confortable with my presence and then I got closer and closer. Finally I composed this one in camera and made several images using different ISOs and apertures.


For this one

Mark IV
600f/4@f/5
SS 1/1000
ISO 1250
Hand held
Natural light.

Thanks for looking. :bg3:

[Grace Scalzo]

Lovely! At first look I thought that the foreground was a bit overpowering, but the more that I think about this, the more I think that the bird just pops from the green. The tiny yellow flowers add a nice touch. Sounds like good field work on your part.

[Lorant Voros]

I like this one, especially the green fore -and background. Fun and fun. Well done, Juan Carlos.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Looks good. I like the low angle and grassy habitat. Lots of FG, but the comp feels balanced. I do find the image a tad too yellow...for the repost I added 30 points of blue and 4 points of red in Color Balance.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Juan is looking already good in OP , Daniel has taken this up a notch by his moves:5.Very nice soft detail and color. Great low POV and i am fine with the overall comp. Very nice .

TFS Andreas

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Thanks every one for commenting and to Daniel for reworking the image. Will give it a try and see how it looks on my end :)

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the setting, walking pose, IQ, BG/FG and composition. Very well done Juan!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Looks good. I like the low angle and grassy habitat. Lots of FG, but the comp feels balanced. I do find the image a tad too yellow...for the repost I added 30 points of blue and 4 points of red in Color Balance.

Hello Daniel and thanks again for working this image. I tryed this changes in the Tiff file but I noted that 30+ points of blue just made the image look too cool and I did not like the change as it as a warm sort of sunny pm when I made the image. Following your advise but will less blue made the image look good. :w3