Red wattled lapwing

[Pramod Viswanath]

Made this image some time ago in the Jungles of Nagarahole in Southern India. This one was too close for "comfort"!

Canon 30D, Canon 300 F2.8 L IS USM + Canon 2x , ISO 125, 1/100, F8, bean bag, shot from car, full frame image.

[Vincent Grafhorst]

Good details on the feathers here Pramod, also the BG is nicely OOF. But too close or rather too tightly framed indeed. On top and left you may be able to add some canvas, but the bottom...

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Lovely species :)
I agree the bird is too close as the bill almost touching the frame and the legs cut. I guess the focus set on the wing and wing tip (especially on the grass in front of the subject) but should have been set for the eye and face. Have you used selective AF? Maybe you had to act quickly :)
Keep trying to get a not so tight image of this beautiful lapwing.

Szimi http://kepfeltoltes.pirateclub.hu/pics/20080812202554shorebirdlover.gif :D

[Daniel Cadieux]

Sometimes the 2x is too much, eh? :-)

Some fill-flash would have helped with the blacks here.

[Judd Patterson]

Such a beautiful bird, Pramod. Perhaps you didn't have enough time to react, but I would have tried to quickly remove the 2x. The background and lighting are both great. It would probably be worth trying to recover a bit more detail in the blacks through a careful RAW conversion in combination with a few selective adjustments in Photoshop. Great job to get such a beautiful species and with nice technique to have the image sharp at that shutter speed.

[Pramod Viswanath]

Thanks all. Birds here are extremely shy. Yes I had to act fast and I didn't have enough time to pullout 2x. Daniel you are right, sometimes 2X is way too much :D