Look who's coming home!

[Joerg Rockenberger]

I saw in the viewfinder that the adult on the nest was raising its feathers indicating that its partner was approaching and started firing away. Got real lucky that I captured it just before blocking the view into the nest. Hope you like it.

Thanks for looking. JR

Canon 40D, 400F5.6, Tamron 1.4TC, 1/400s, F7.1, ISO-800, Manual Exposure, Tripod

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Good timing and capture of this moment. Great to see both chicks, too. You could remove the bright spots on both chick's bill tips. I'm wondering about the color temperature, maybe a bit lower but I'm not positive.

[Julie Kenward]

What a keeper! Perfect timing! I agree that the color temp looks a little whacky but the image is so good otherwise it really doesn't bother me. What a special moment you managed to capture!

[Fabs Forns]

Whoaaa, terrific moment, very unusual. There is definitely a warm color cast to this.

[Arthur Morris]

Good timing and capture of this moment. Great to see both chicks, too. You could remove the bright spots on both chick's bill tips. I'm wondering about the color temperature, maybe a bit lower but I'm not positive.

Way cool image that could use a bit more punch (contrast). Great job of getting a clear view of the two chicks. What was the situation???

Axel, best to leave those two white spots in the image; they are the egg teeth!

[Grace Scalzo]

So much to like here....THe parent flying in just makes it perfect. Hope to see more from this site.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback! I noticed too that there seemed to be a color cast to the picture but couldn't get rid of it playing with levels etc. If you don't mind: how do you correct color temperature in Photoshop 6.0? I did a search in their help and looked around but couldn't find it.

Arthur, I am not sure I understand your question re what the situation was. This is the same nest I posted a picture of a couple of weeks ago (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13867). It's on a cliff across from an overlook at Point Lobos State Park south of Carmel, CA.

This is actually one of my first major photoshopping jobs as I had to differently sharpen the birds in the nest and the incoming adult. Furthermore, the landing adult was carrying a stick which went right across the head of one of the chicks. Attached is the as-shot-jpg for comparison. I know it's basic but... Glad I invested the time.

Besides the color cast, the picture has a certain graininess which I am not too happy about and not sure where it's coming from. Surprised that no one mentioned it. Noise is certainly a possibility but it also suffered in the jpg compression as I had to set the quality to 8 in the Save-As dialogue.

Anyway, I'll keep working on it and thanks again for taking the time to comment!

JR

[Sharna Lee]

Nice editing job on this photo. I see what you mean about the color contrast. Maybe someone with more PP experiance could help you better on this but I wanted to say that it's a FANTASTIC image. Very sharp and just an awesome all around image. Keep them coming.

Sharna

[Arthur Morris]

John wrote: "Arthur, I am not sure I understand your question re what the situation was. This is the same nest I posted a picture of a couple of weeks ago (http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=13867 (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13867)). It's on a cliff across from an overlook at Point Lobos State Park south of Carmel, CA."

Thanks for the explanation. That is what I was looking for; I did not see the ORIG post.

[elizabeth colabrese]

I love the photo. Does everyone but me know what kind of birds these are?

Yes. They are Black-crowned Night-Herons.