Great bustard (Otis tarda)

[Juan Aragonés]

This image is from the past year when I spendt a wonderfull weekend in Extremadura photographing steppary birds like this huge male great bustard. One of the more magnificent birds I have ever seen.
I decided to crop in panoramic format to enhance the feeling of open spaces that the steppelands and to keep a low contrast to preserve the softness of the light.

As always, your coments and critics are highly apreciated :)

Nikon D2X AFS Nikkor 500AFS II +1,4XTC f8, 1/100s ISO200 hide, WHII + tripod manual exposure

[Kiran Poonacha]

Wow.. Superb Image.. What a beautiful Bird..very well done against the light..

[thijs broekkamp]

That's is some beautifull and extraordinary bird. Really nice compo, sharp and on ground level. Good pic!

[susanschermer]

Congratulations, Juan. I love the slightly OOF flowers and thorns in the foreground and the completely OOF background. Beautiful light and the bird is positioned nicely the way you cropped it. I love the spread of the tail feathers. What would be the equivalent of these birds in the New World; a pheasant or grouse or wild turkey?

[Randy Stout]

Juan:

A lovely image, you captured the soft like well, and your post processing choices reinforced that.

I might be tempted to crop up just a bit from the bottom, perhaps to just above your sig line. I do find that OOF band a bit distracting. Perhaps alternatively, if you need that area for comp. balance, you could darken it just a little bit.

In a perfect world, I wish the clump of vegetation wasn't blocking part of the tail. Good choice on pano crop I think.

I am curious like Susan, how big this bird is?

Thanks, its a beauty.

Randy

[Ramon M. Casares]

Love the low angle, the touches of yellow, the BG, the terrific exposure and stunning light, colors and comp. Big congratulation Juan!

[Juan Aragonés]

Susan, Randy and Ramón, thanks for your comments :) There is not equivalent of this bird species (nor its family) in the new world only in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In Spain we have two species and this one is the largest. They are really big, you couldn´t imagine how much big an adult male is... well I think that an image is best than some words about its size.

Randy I like your suggestion about croping more at the bottom and I am going to try. ;)

[Randy Stout]

Juan:

Our wild turkeys are pretty big, esp. the Toms, but not as big as sheep! Great way to show its size.

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

Fantastic image, Juan, love the way that tail glows. I'm fine with the crop as presented, maybe taking some off would unbalance the bird's position, would need to see it.

BTW, your painting are impressive! Glad you created your blog!

[Randy Stout]

Juan:

I do agree with Fabs, that cropping might change your comp. balance. My other thought was to burn in the foreground just a bit. This is a very quick job of it, but I tried to match the brightness of the upper background.
I think it does help the bird standout a bit more from the foreground.

Just an option.

Randy

[Juan Aragonés]

Hey Fabs, thanks for visiting my blog and for your words about my painting. Most of them are old because I now try to paint with the camera gear :D but trying to return to the world of brushes and paintings. It is my intetion to post more paintings fequently.

Randy good advise :-)

[Krijn Trimbos]

Hi Juan,
A beautiful shot of a super cool subject. Love the sunlit tail and the cool pose. I like Randy's burned FG. I am not too sure about this but feel there is a slight colourcast to your photo, it looks like a cyan cast but might also be little bluecast. Anyway I feel like adding a bit more red and yellow would enhance the photo. Otherwise really wish this was mine! Well done

[Alfred Forns]

Beautiful Juan Like it as presented also Lots of feel and what a bird .. they can pose !!! About all I could wish was for the bird to be a little ahead to avoid the clump by the tail area.

Visited your drawings and I'm big time impressed You are one talented person !!! Big Congrats !!!!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

it`s a dream image!!!!
fantastic pose,colors,light,angle and composition,congrats!!!!!!!

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely image, Juan. Like Randy the FG issues disturb me a little and I think a slight burn s the best approach as a crop would unbalance it. Much more colourful than the big Bustards I've seen in Africa and Australia.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Beautiful bird Juan, thanks for sharing it. The OOF vegetation don't bother me.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

This is such a beautiful and unusual-looking bird. I like the angle, soft light, pose and details and only wish the foreground grass wouldn't partially cover the bird.