American White Ibis

[Joseph Przybyla]

In baseball sometimes there is a homerun and sometimes a strike out. Bird photography is like that, yesterday for me was a homerun. The day was a bright overcast with heavy rain predicted in the afternoon. I had to go to the store for staples of life, milk and coffee, so I decided to bring my camera and stop by a couple of local lakes. The first lake was a strikeout, few birds and those that were there were in the wrong locations. The second lake, Lake Morton was a homerun. I found this striking White Ibis in breeding colors showing it's gular sac. I feel very fortunate because this striking appearance lasts for only a few short days a year. 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 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering -1/3 EV ISO 200 AWB, camera supported by a knee pod
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent image. Spectacular preening pose. Absolutely superb exposures in whites. Great details and very nice composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[dankearl]

Gorgeous shot, Joe, Whites are pretty much perfect, nice pose, maybe just a tad more sharpening?

[Joseph Przybyla]

Satish and Dan, thank you for viewing and commenting. I revisited the image for sharpening and reposted. Very much appreciated.

[Arthur Morris]

Killer bird. The main problem is that the bird's head (along the axis of the bill) is turned just a fraction away from you. As a result, the face looks a bit dark to me. artie

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks Artie, below is a repost with the face lightened. I have others and will look for a better/perfect head angle. Good to read that you are doing well after surgery, best wishes on your continued recovery.

[Arthur Morris]

Much better with the face brighter. The WHITEs might look good a bit brighter too. Thanks for the good wishes. I am feeling much better today than yesterday :)

a

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely subject. The RP works much better, but my eye keeps wanting to go vertical with this one. You may wish to give it a shot. I think it will give a lot more attention to the breeding colors.

Artie neglected to tell you that we have a name for these birds: "ballchinians!"

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely subject. The RP works much better, but my eye keeps wanting to go vertical with this one. You may wish to give it a shot. I think it will give a lot more attention to the breeding colors.

Artie neglected to tell you that we have a name for these birds: "ballchinians!"


Credit Froggie for that :) a

[Ihtisham Kabir]

Spectacular, memorable image. If it was in my hands I would try jacking up the contrast a tad.