Boat-tailed Grackle (f)

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image yesterday morning at the rookery in the alligator breeding pond at Gatorland, Orlando, Florida. This girl was a real flirt, she was calling out and the males were flitting around her. 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 310mm
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 2000 AWB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017
Cropped from horizontal for composition and presentation

[Juan Tolentino]

Well done Joe. Great pose and detail. Really good picture quality. I think a little CCW rotation will be beneficial.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stuart wanuck]

great black exposure nice image

[Bill Dix]

Great calling pose captured, Joe. I wonder if a touch of sharpening on the head would help -- the focus point may have been a bit further down.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great shot Joe, I think Bill has a good idea! other than that I think it is excellent.

[Isaac Grant]

Great pose you got here Joe of your little flirt. I agree that the head could use a little more sharpening. I would add a little more canvas above and below as it seems a little tight to me. Also the shot looks a little flat to me. These birds are more of a reddish brown and not really a blondish brown. I think it would benefit from a lowering the mid tones a bit and adding a little saturation perhaps. May have to up the exposure if you do that. I really wish I got a shot like this while I was down there.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.