Painted stork in flight

[Gautam Biswas]

Another of the flight images created on 1st January. This is of a painted stork. The image created with a Canon 1D III with a EF 500mm f4 IS and 1.xTC at ISO400, f7.1 and 1/1250s. Focus tracking on AF servo. Image processed in Lightroom and PS CS3 to add contrast and slightly crop the original image.

Comments, advice most welcome.

[Jim Neiger]

Hi Gautam,

Interesting bird. I've never seen one before. I like the look and head angle. Nice light and blue sky bg too. The only nit would be the wing position and shadows with little detail. Overall this is a very nice image.

[Marvin Pfeiffer]

Nice shot and compostition. I've never seen one of these birds either. Maybe some fill flash could have been helpul to lessen or eliminate the shadow from the left wing. Nice work!

[Michael Rosenbaum]

Hi Gautam - Good to see you posting here. Nice image of a bird I've only seen at Jurong Bird Park. I agree about the shadowed under-wings, but love the way this makes the color of the beak and head stand out. Where did you make this image?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very nice image of this bird. Where did you photograph it? Probably not in Geneva, right? :) I also wish for a different wing position. Do you have images of one or two frames later?

[Glenn Bartley]

A very fine image of this somewhat gaudy looking bird. The wing position could be better. But I still like it as is.

[Gautam Biswas]

Thanks for all the valuable comments. The image was made in India, 50 Km from New Delhi at the Sultanpur National Bird Sanctuary.

Regarding the position of the wings that some of you have mentioned- I actually chose the image with curved wings as I thought this gave the image a dynamic look. I am posting another image with straightened wings.

[Gautam Biswas]

This one is with a slightly different wing shape.