Cormorant

[Joseph Przybyla]

On Thursday I was at the rookery at Gatorland in Orlando, Florida. I was able to get close to this Cormorant sitting on eggs in the nest. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 290mm (435mm FFE)
1/250 F/7.1 Matrix Metering 0 EV ISO 720, camera on a monopod braced against a railing
Post processed in Lightroom 5 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition, cleaned up a few spots of bird poop on the feathers

[gail bisson]

Hi Joe,
I gotta say this is really nice!
I like the IQ and the POV and the soft light a lot. Perfect head turn as well.
I would burn the brightest branches in the nest.
Well done,
gail

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow there is some beautiful detail there gorgeous colours too. Excellent eye detail, I would agree with Gail regards the twigs toning them down is a good idea.

[Glenn Conlan]

Very nice capture, you have really brought out the best of this species

[David Salem]

Very nice's right. Love the feather patterns and the Head angle with the beautiful green eye. The nest in the background look great to. Well done

[John Robinson]

Good one ! Perhaps a tighter crop on the head. Would have been good for last monthse theme
(If you are into competions of course !)
Cheers
John

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, nice feather detail/pattern as David mentioned. As you processed this via LR then a quick Graduate filter applied to the foot takes care of the brighter bottom half and brings out more detail etc that you had originally captured, took less time than to write this reply. :S3:

TFS
Steve

[Arthur Morris]

Nice image and a better repost. I'm betting that you climbed the tower :)

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing, commenting and offering suggestions to improve the image.

Steve, I never think of the Graduated Filter with birds. I will give it a try. I am more inclined to use the Adjustment Brush to brush in a correction.

Artie, yup... you know the place well. The second level of the tower. I never realized how much that tower rocks and rolls when people walk until I was capturing images of this Cormorant.

Thanks again everyone, very much appreciated.

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve, I never think of the Graduated Filter with birds. I will give it a try. I am more inclined to use the Adjustment Brush to brush in a correction.


Joe, make sure you are running the most up to date version, as there are some really simple (and updated) features that will answer a lot of requirements and are easily overlooked. :w3 BTW it's universal, Avian subjects are not exempt, LOL, good luck.

[keith mitchell]

Joe I think thr detail and colours on this are excellent.
Keith

[William Dickson]

Very nice image Joe. I like the details around the head area and the pose. Well done