Quetzal in CR

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

A male quetzal on an overcast afternoon at Savegre in Costa Rica. They are usually obscured by branches - but finally saw one out in the open. The three green circular blobs above its head towards the left are the avacado fruit they eat.
Removed one branch by quick mask and used lens blur filter to soften the remaining branches
Canon 50D 400mm DO x 1.4 ISO 640 1/320 f5.6 Tripod

[Ramon M. Casares]

I wouldn't mind to hang this on my wall! Love the "painting feel" it has! Great pose, light, colors, ambient, textures and detail! Congratulaitons!

[Jory Griesman]

Very nice, Peter. I've been to CR twice, and haven't yet seen a quetzal. Nice exposure, with this entire, loooong bird in focus, and great colours. I like the OOF peripheral branches with the in focus central branch. I'm not sure, re: overall comp, as, although the bird is centred, half of it trails off to one side.

BTW, are you the same PH that I clerked for in 1986 at MSH?

[Grace Scalzo]

A colorful, artsy image. Quite beautiful and full of interesting details. I'd sharpen the bird's head a bit more.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Beautiful work!

My only suggestion would be to sat the reds and greens on the bird, but just a little.

Very nice presentation of this cloud forest jewel.

I can imaging that composing this image was no so easy since one always want to include the tail!

[Greg Basco]

Peter, nice job taking advantage of this situation. I agree with Juan Carlos about saturating the bird -- indeed the overall image could use some pop in my opinion. Too bad about those branches behind his tail, but this is one of the better looks I've seen.

Congrats on a nice image,
Greg Basco

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

thanks for the helpful comments and suggestions

jory - yes, it's me - hope you are doing well

greg- debated about masking out that branch, but then read fab's post " A branch away rom eternity"
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34461
and decided to be happy with what was there. Besides it makes for another reason to return to CR.

[Greg Basco]

Peter, thanks for the reply. The image is great, and the branches are a relatively minor concern. I for one am not at all big on cloning out branches or otherwise doing substantial manipulation to images (cropping, adding canvas, adding wing tips) so, while the image would be a bit better without the branches, I too would be very happy with the image you captured in camera.

Cheers,
Greg

[Juan Aragonés]

Superb image Peter. I lke a lot the composition and the fantastic eye contact of this beauty. I see some kind of bluis cast on the image and I think that some levels adjustment can improve the result. Very good job and keep them coming.