Great Antshrike

[Johnny Bravo]

The Great Antshrike.

This is a bird that I truly never expected to even see, much less image. This handsome fella popped out of the foliage during the passing of a 'mixed flock' at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica.

Now, if you've never experienced a 'mixed flock', you're missing a bird photographers life experience that is without parallel.

Imagine a flock of 150-300 birds, comprised of maybe 30 or 40 species, moving through the jungle or forest, different species foraging at all levels. Several species on the ground, several more in the understory, a group at eye level, and other species all the way up to the upper story. They are MOVING, foraging like crazy, really working the habitat. When one scares up a bug, another one gets it.

You? You're shooting like crazy, Sometimes you don't even know what you're shooting until you get back and download. You're going through memory cards like crazy, you're cursing your buffer for not being bigger.
That's a mixed flock. And sometimes (rarely), they'll contain a Great Antshrike. I was gaspin when I saw this bird. What a gorgeous animal.

Now, go ahead, pick at my nits.

Best,
John(ny Bravo)

[Dan Brown]

Bravo! Mr. Bravo! Great story. What an experience that must have been. I really like the eye contact here. The image seems to be washed out a bit. The OOF blob in front of the bird could be removed and some of the bright spots also in the BG, but too many for me to tackle. I have done some adjustments on this image. I did a levels layer, hue/saturation layer, added some black and gray with a selective color layer, adjusted further with highlight/shadow filter, reduced noise with Noise Ninja and finally, I sharpened the eye a bit. Unfortunately, all of the above should have been done prior to your sharpening because what I have done has enhanced the halo around the bird, particularly the head. But, I think the image is improved and if you were to go back to the original file, adjust and then sharpen, I think you will have a great image to go along with a great story.

Dan Brown

ps. I almost forgot, the leg band may qualify this as a "hand of man" catagory image!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Hello Johnny!
I was starting to believe that you did not make any picture while you were here in CR!
Very good and true story of the behavior of these fellows.
I like this image a lot, even if there are some distracting clear parts on that heliconia in the back. Good job.

[Greg Basco]

Johnny, a nice image of a very tough bird. Congrats!

Cheers,
Greg

[Lana Hays]

Johnny
An interesting lesson about the "mixed flock"........sounds like a photographer's dream. Given the "rapid fire" I'd say you did quite well. I like Dan's repost but as he said......it really shows the halo. There seems to be some noise.....perhaps due to a large crop or underexposure? It would be good to post the techs to the image as they often give us some information to make more suggestions. The birds there are beautiful....but so is the habitat. If you did crop a lot, I might be tempted to crop less and make it less tight. Interesting that it was banded......are there many banded birds there?

[Johnny Bravo]

Bravo! Mr. Bravo! Great story. What an experience that must have been. I really like the eye contact here. The image seems to be washed out a bit. The OOF blob in front of the bird could be removed and some of the bright spots also in the BG, but too many for me to tackle. I have done some adjustments on this image. I did a levels layer, hue/saturation layer, added some black and gray with a selective color layer, adjusted further with highlight/shadow filter, reduced noise with Noise Ninja and finally, I sharpened the eye a bit. Unfortunately, all of the above should have been done prior to your sharpening because what I have done has enhanced the halo around the bird, particularly the head. But, I think the image is improved and if you were to go back to the original file, adjust and then sharpen, I think you will have a great image to go along with a great story.

Dan Brown

ps. I almost forgot, the leg band may qualify this as a "hand of man" catagory image!

Well you definately added 'pop' to the image. I'll admit I've been very, very lazy in my post processing of some of my CR images--the volume overwhelmed my attention span. I'll run it back through from raw with a few of your post-processing menu items and see how it looks. I was cursing that bg--but it is a box a chocolates out there!!

Thanks!