Military Starling

[John Chardine]

This is my first post ever from a ship in the South Atlantic! We are currently sailing out of the Falkland Islands towards South Georgia.

Here is an offering from yesterday at West Point Island, West Falklands, of a Long-tailed Meadowlark, locally known as the Military Starling. I was lucky in that the male posed in front of a large Gorse bush in full spring bloom, hence the yellow BG.

Not much done other than a crop and sharpen. I'm processing on my laptop on board ship. Hope the colours look OK to you as I am having the standard shift that occurs when Saving for Web and Devices. This one is slightly less saturated than the original. Comments please!

Canon EOS 50D, 70-200/4 @ 200mm
capture date: 6 November 2009
exposure program: Shutter Priority
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/800
aperture: f4.5
exposure bias: +0.3
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

[Doug Brown]

A new bird for me John. Great looking bird and a gorgeous BG. It would have been nice not to have the OOF FG rock, but it's still a nice image! Thanks for sharing, and enjoy your trip!

[Tony Whitehead]

Great bird, John. Very interesting bill. Colours look good to me. BG is amazing and complements the warm reds. Agree with Doug re the OOF rock. Looking forward to more from your adventure.

[ChasMcRae]

Brings back memories of Falkland trip.
Nice profile , nice rock perch with lichen,beautiful color.
Guess there is nothing I can think of to get rid of rock out front.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very nice bird John. Love that sharp bill and pose. The only thing that distracts me is the yellow/bright BG.

[Harshad Barve]

wonderful species , lovely compo and killer BG
TFS

[Graeme Sheppard]

Whilst I love the BG in many ways, it could do with being toned down somewhat. Fascinating beak.
I'd normally like a bit of turn in the head, but as a military starling, the pose is great!

[scott benson]

lovely shot.

[John Chardine]

Thanks for the comments! I could remove the foreground rock with some quickmasking and/or cloning. May try that. As for the BG I would never change the tone because that is the colour of Gorse, plain and simple. I try as much as possible to process images as seen with as little manipulation as possible. I was very happy to have the yellow in the BG rather than the more common green of the vegetation.

[Kiran Poonacha]

killer bird Bhia, loved the colours, deatils, great light and BG too, congrats..

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I don't think I have seen an image of this species before, thanks for sharing it. I like the eye contact and BG and might desaturate the image a few points. A slightly higher angle would have helped with the rock in the foreground. Have fun down there and I look forward to more images.