Brazilian Tapir and Tick Eating Bird

[Loi Nguyen]

Brazilian Tapir (Tapirus terrestris) is listed as Vulnerable. We saw a total of 3 individuals int he Pantanal, fewer than we saw Jaguar.
This individual wandered into camp before sunrise while we were having breakfast. I was the only one with camera ready, so went off and took a series of shots. The bird on him is a tick-eating bird, I forgot the name.

1DX
100-400 II @ 400mm
1/200
f5.6
ISO-3200
HH

Cropped and rotated slightly.
In DPP4, dropped exposure by -0.5EV, increased contrast slightly, added Hue/Sat, NR on BG, selective sharpen.
Wish I had a little more SS.

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[haseeb badar]

Hi Loi -- lovely POV and a nce pose and moment captured . Comp is fine here ,the feet of the bird on Tapir's back looks very pretty . Must have been a great experience seeing them and also photographing them . i would prefer some warmth in the image by incresing the color temp slider in DPP as some coolness of the scene will be reduced by doing the same. But that is all abt personal taste . Also a slight mid tone boost to add some punch in the overall scene. TFS !

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - It's great that you had your camera ready and got the shot. You did well in the low light. Thanks also for including the Red List status. I like the comp with a bit of wider view and habitat included. The bird certainly adds to the image. I do wish the head angle of the tapir was slightly turned toward you. I've only seen these in zoos but there seems to be a bit of a magenta cast to the lower body and a bit of blue to the upper body here.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Great species to capture and well done on being ready for anything anytime!
I agree with Rachel on the colour casts...I'd tone down overall luminosity for more punch, and add some midtone contrast to the subject selectively after that?

[Katie Rupp]

Hi Loi,

Happy for you to have gotten the image on the fly, color cast already mentioned but I wanted to add that the bird looks like a Caracara to me...

TFS,

Best,

Katie

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Loi stunning frame from the subject /species POV , thank you for posting this !!!!
Cannot remember seen on posted here .
Nice setting , comp and overall tone , i agree with above suggestions regarding more mid tones and the color issues .

TFS Andreas

[Loi Nguyen]

Dear friends, thank you for your comments. I had to put my life on hold the past week to take care of my Dad who peacefully passed away last week at the golden age of 92. Will get back to this image later. Loi

[haseeb badar]

Dear Loi -- My deep condolences to you and your family . May his soul Rest in Peace !!

[Loi Nguyen]

I have to say I'm quite timid when it comes to correcting for color cast, so thank you for pointing it out. Here is a RP, hope you like it better.

Loi

[Rachel Hollander]

hi Loi - I think you perhaps went a little too far in the rp. Somewhere in between the two would work best IMHO.

Cheers,
Rachel