Bearded vultures at Giant's Castle

[Betsie Storm]

This "family" appeared early morning on our first day at GC hide a few weeks ago. It was cold with lots of heavy cloud, mist and intermittent rain. At the risk of making anthropomorphic comments, the juvenile looked like a bad-tempered teenager dragged out of bed to join the family outing :).
I really like this image as a reminder of the moment but there are probably several things wrong with it- exposure, background? It is cropped, exposure adjusted and distracting light blobs (actually rocks) cloned out of the background. All comments & crits welcomed, and suggestions on how to improve presentation.
Thanks!

EXIF:
Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II N
Date/Time: 2009:10:11 08:27:11
Shutter speed: 1/400 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Av
Exposure compensation: +1/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Continuous
ISO: 1600
Lens: EF500mm f/4.5L USM
Focal length: 500mm
AF mode: AI Servo AF

[Clement Francis]

Man this is million dollar image for me, here in India we don't have a single picture of this bird seen perched. They are always seen soaring in the himalayas. This is total cracker of an image, great clarity and wonderful light

[Harshad Barve]

wonderful image , nice expo and sharpness on all three birds, BG is nice
Nice to see eye of all three birds here
cropping slightly above your signature may help in making this compo strong one
TFS

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Good head angles, soft light and sharpness. BG looks good, too. I might crop a bit tighter to emphasize the interaction. Keep them coming!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice family interaction - and I like your description of the "teenager" :-) I agree on a tighter crop, but not sure how much of a crop this already is. Perfect HA on the middle guy - the one to our left would have been nice with a bit more of a turn, and the one to our right a bit less. Still, I'm sure this is not an often seen scene - you did well.

[Brian Barcelos]

Looks very good especially at such a high ISO. Head angles are pretty good, To get three perfect HA might be asking for to much. BG looks good also and you did great adjusting the exposure in pp. I'd crop a little from bottom and left but that would depend on how much this is already cropped. Congrats

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Mean looking chaps. As Clement mentioned, in India, it is a dream of every bird-watcher( in India term birder is not used much) to get a glimpse of one though binocs :-) three of them perched is waaaay over the top.

As others have suggested, a tighter crop will help tremendously...(a) it will do justice to their massive size(100+ cm) (b) focus the viewer's attention to their faces. A pano crop with little room on all sides to the three will do that IMO.

KD

[Kiran Poonacha]

One more vote for crop, also would tone down a rock a bit more. but loved the image, nice to get three in a frame, the rock adds well, congrats..

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Betsie, good eye contact from all three, and love the teenager. Comp wise, I would take about a third off the top, and a little above your signature at the bottom.

[philperry]

Awesome sighting Betsie. And super photo of three bearded vultures. The details and colour mean that this picture will look great whichever way you crop it - from letterbox to the crop you have shown.

[David Fletcher]

Fabulous hot Betsie. Good IQ and some good crop suggestions.

[Betsie Storm]

Thanks very much everyone for your kind words and improvement suggestions. I cropped as suggested and warmed the rock up a tad- see repost.