Wood Stork

[Muhammad Arif]

Here is my submission of a Wood Stork for this month's theme of extreme close ups.

This image was captured on 9/24/2017 at Fort De Soto. I sat on my butt and slowly got closer to the bird. I made several images, both vertical and horizontal, but I like the vertical one better. The background is just water but due to distance of the background and close focus of the subject, the background became totally uniform.

Canon 5D III
Canon 100-400 II + 1.4x III @560mm
1/2000 | f/8.0 | ISO 400
Handheld using kneepod technique.


Image is completely uncropped. Post-processed in ACR/Photoshop and then DeNoise AI.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice closeup details and good light, I would loosen the crop a bit if you have it

TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

Oooh, it must have been fun to have so close to such a great subject! Details and exposure look great. Although I'm OK with the cut bill, I would have zoomed out just enough to include the full back of the head. excellent study in textures here, lot to take in!

[John Mack]

Shows of the detail very nicely. Sure does fit the theme.

[Brian Sump]

Muhammad, really cool to see this fella up close.

Your light angle was great and you exposed. The tones are processed nicely IMO.

Do agree with Daniel on a crop including the rear of the head, however that turns out in the end.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Muhammad .
Nice tight portrait , looks very good in terms of tonal and color range .
Cracking details showing up . love that !!!

TFS Andreas

[Muhammad Arif]

Thank you, everyone, for your comments. I didn't mind the back of the head cut off because the framing was closer to the bird (which is the theme) and it showed more of the bill and the position of the eye felt more balanced to me in the frame. But what do I know? :)

Based on feedback from Arash, Daniel and Brian who wanted to see the whole head, I'm uploading a new photo that's a little more "zoomed out". As I mentioned in my original post, I had several images and this new one was taken a few seconds before the above image. Same focal length as before (560mm) but I had not crawled as close yet. One thing I do not like about this image is the ruffled feathers because of wind.

As always, thanks for your feedback.