Who guards the Giants Castle...

[Wayne Niz]

Juvenile Bearded Vulture resident in the Giants Castle mountains, Drakensberg, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. I managed to see 5 of an estimated 375 birds left in South Africa, tragic scenario for these misunderstood birds whose main diet consists of bones. The juveniles do look menacing though...
R5
600mm ef ii
1/5000
f6.3
iso 1250
sticks & gimbal
DXo Raw, LRC, Topaz Sharpen, small crop
191025

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the BG here a lot, the pano crop goes well with the vulture's immense wing span. raised talons add more interest. wing position is flat but it can work for this subject since we see a little bit of both under wing and top of the wing plumage.

The image has a number of issues however holding it back. The head angle isn't great and only one eye is parietally and hardly visible, which makes it tough to make a connection with the subject. the side light didn't help much either. The head details look a bit coarse and crunchy on my screen as posted , I am not sure if the RAW file was sharp or not, could be post processing (?)

TFS

[Wayne Niz]

I like the BG here a lot, the pano crop goes well with the vulture's immense wing span. raised talons add more interest. wing position is flat but it can work for this subject since we see a little bit of both under wing and top of the wing plumage.

The image has a number of issues however holding it back. The head angle isn't great and only one eye is parietally and hardly visible, which makes it tough to make a connection with the subject. the side light didn't help much either. The head details look a bit coarse and crunchy on my screen as posted , I am not sure if the RAW file was sharp or not, could be post processing (?)

TFS
Hi Arash

Thanks once again for taking the time to review and comment. The head angle I tend to disagree with your view as if there wasn't a slight tilt showing the one eye and 100% straight on you wouldn't see any eye at this head angle. If the head was tilted more to the one side it would be at odds with the overall theme of the image i.e. a menacing bird that has you in its sights talon raised ready to engage. On my screen the eye on the right is clearly engaging the viewer, and I think that impact of the overall image is one of connection with subject. We all have our opinions and I greatly appreciate yours as you have a million frames more experience than me but I think you may be wrong on this one. WRT the coarse and crunchy details, the head is not pin sharp I accept, although the reduction to 600kb does make it look a lot worse that what the image is in full size.

Please do not get me wrong I really do appreciate your view and time taken to give that review.

Cheers

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Wayne

I agree this is subjective and so is art. There is no right or wrong. There are some rules but they aren’t black and white.

For me this image is not strong for the reasons above. I used to take photos like this from 2005 to 2009 until I found this website. I listened to the critique mainly by Artie and some other great photographers. After a few years I went back selected all the 2005-2009 images and hit delete all ... just a perspective :S3:

TFS and keep up the good work

[Wayne Niz]

Hey Arash

100% with you thank you, although I wont be deleting this one as I think its a cracker:c3:. Sometimes overall impact is more important than singular technical compliance....

[Kurt Bowman]

I like the pano crop and I don't have any issues with the head angle. However, I do find myself wishing you had better light. Still great job Wayne.

[Wayne Niz]

I like the pano crop and I don't have any issues with the head angle. However, I do find myself wishing you had better light. Still great job Wayne.

Hey Kurt

Thanks very much for your comments much appreciated.

Cheers

[dankearl]

I agree with Arash on this Wayne, It is not a delete by any means but people fall in love with their photos and as
far as story telling goes, since that is important to you, it is only a story for me if the bird has some eye contact unless their
is obvious prey below.
There is none here,,,,, since you were there, you know that, someone looking at this like me do not, so it has no story for me.

[Dorian Anderson]

Colors and pose are lovely, but the head on view makes it difficult to connect with the subject as others have mentioned. Feet are fun; I just wish we had a nice banking pose to see them a bit better.

[Wayne Niz]

Hi All,

I need to eat some humble pie (well quite a few slices actually), I got emotionally attached to my pic and didnt see the technical shortfalls that were there in plain sight. I apologize for my frustration and specifically to Arash, who was only actually giving me his time. I am sorry and a bit embarrassed to be honest. I will blame it on my passion if that will hold water.

I did in the mean time find a frame from the same set where the bird lowered his claws but raised his head, still not tack sharp but a bit better from an eye contact perspective.
191051

[John Mack]

The crop works well and I do like the incoming pose.