my winning images

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks everybody for the kind words! Here are the two first place images. There were submitted as 11x17 prints, mounted and matted. The first one was entered in the challenge category, which was "a moment in time". The second one won in the "animals" category. :)

[Kerry Perkins]

Here's the Cooper's hawk juvi.

[William Malacarne]

Kerry

A very well deserved congrats is to you Sir. All I can say is WOW!!!!!

Bill

[Andrew Merwin]

Congratulations. Well Done.

[Rich Steel]

Congratulations Kerry :)

Cheers

Rich

[Dave Leroy]

Good for you Kerry.

Well deserved!

Dave

[Sid Garige]

Amazing action in first image Kerry. Very well deserved.

[John T. Watson]

Wonderful Photo's!! Especially the first one. I wonder if those King Birds notice that the Red Tail has a snake (who would raid their nest in a heart beat!

John
jtwatson.smugmug.com

[Rachel Hollander]

Congrats Kerry. Well done!

[denise ippolito]

Wonderful Kerry!!!:) Congrats!!!

[Roger Clark]

Kerry,

Congratulations! Very impressive imgeas, especially the Cooper's hawk juvi.

Roger

[Harshad Barve]

Super shots

[Sandra Nykerk]

Kerry, incredible images. Was wondering where the first image was taken and exactly what was happening. And also, what kind of snake?

[Kerry Perkins]

Sandra, both images were captured at a place called Satwiwa in the Santa Monica Mountain range in southern California. The red-tailed hawk was bringing the snake to the nest to feed the two fledglings that were waiting. I had been observing this family for several weeks and knew the feeding schedule and flight pattern. Thank you for your kind words!

Almost forgot, that is a California king snake.

[Dan Brown]

Great shots Kerry! That shot with the kingbirds and kingsnake is cool!

[Geraldo Hofmann]

Congratulations... the second one is beautiful but the first image first is just amazing !!

[Dave Mills]

Congrats Kerry...a big well done!:cheers:

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks everyone! This is BPN in action. I learned everything I know right here and in Artie's materials. Big thanks to all of you for your encouragement and gentle guidance. :cool:

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Big Congrats Kerry. Well deserved.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Kerry,
Congratulations! The action in the first image is terrific. Well deserved.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Dave Woeller]

Congratulations Kerry, well deserved.

[Morkel Erasmus]

congrats Kerry - that first photo is MINDBLOWING! I've seen the same behaviour displayed by fork-tailed drongos on African raptors...

[Mark Young]

Congrats Kerry, both of them are worthy winners, but my favourite of the 2 would be the second image.

[Hilary Hann]

Two beautiful images, congratulations.

[Michael Bertelsen]

Very nice Kerry,

Well deserved.

Michael Bertelsen

[Arthur Morris]

First off congrats of course. As to the Swainson's Hawk image. It is one of the most incredible image captures I have ever seen. Totally amazing. Most everything is perfect: the two Western Kingbirds (?) are both sharp and their poses are great. The snakes is amazing, so beautifully coiled. All of the main stuff is in sharp focus. And the EXP is good.

I do however have one major concern and a suggestion for improvement: a decent crop from the bottom bringing the image closer to 3X2 would tighten it up and bring more of the viewer's attention to the amazing interaction and the details. My major concern is with the color balance. There is a big CYAN cast. I messed around with a bit without much success. It might be best to start over with the RAW file. I will be right back. I wanna try one last thing.

[Arthur Morris]

Nope. I failed again. Start with the RAW file and pay careful attention to the color temperature. Assuming that you are converting in ACR go to the HSL tab and mess around with the SAT and Luminance of the various channels esp. CYAN and BLUE. Then post it here :)

[Hazel Grant]

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!! Especially the first image. Re Arthus' cyan comments, I first noticed that when I brought up the picture, but then, those from CA know the color of the sky there, and you were shooting right into it. Thus, but blue cast, but also, I guess it depends on the look you want. I think the cyan overcast actually gives it a sort of "art" look and I like that. Hey, first place (dont know what contest) and three birds plus a snake in perfect union, all in great focus and comp---who could ask for anything more! Your patience in watching them paid off. Great job!!!!

Have you posted the data somewhere else? I'd like to know what it is, esp shooting into the sky. Thanks.

[Ken Childs]

Both images look great, Kerry!
Well deserved! :cheers:

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks so much everyone for your interest and encouragement. Artie, I went back to the RAW image in LR2 and worked on the color temp and also worked it a bit in PS CS4. A slight crop from the bottom and some "small detail" adjustment in Topaz Detail. I think this is a much better representation of the real color. Thanks so much for the suggestions.

Hazel, the competition is an annual one sponsored by the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area in southern California. It is only open to amateur photographers.

The techs were as follows - 50D, EF400 f/5.6 1/1250@f/5.6 WB set manually at 5100K (this is what got me into color trouble, I should have adjusted this downward for the late afternoon light) handheld, no flash

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Kerry, YAW. The crop from the bottom really strengthened an already strong image. I took another crack at the color to come up with the repost. I like the more neutral bird in the repost a lot better but am still not thrilled with the sky....

AVG BLUR Color Balance, a bit of Selective Color and Color Curves (the latter on the REDs) and De-saturating the REDs, BLUEs, and CYANs in Hue-Saturation....

[Arthur Morris]

ps: Me bad on call your dark redtail a Swainson's....

pps: How does the eye look in the TIFF. From the JPEG it looks as if it could use some Eye Doctor work. Good luck on all counts.

[Van Hilliard]

Very interesting exchange here beginning with two superb images and the subsequent work on the color temperature and cropping. It's great that the exchange begins with a prize-winning image and then offers effective efforts to improve it. Great work.

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks Artie! I was not happy with the sky either. :cool: This image, even in the RAW, has a challenge in the sky. Tough trade-off between getting blue in the sky and keeping the rest from going too cyan. I like the more subdued reds you got in the bird. I'm not going to give up on this one though, and I think the next go will be to try some selection based on color and maybe isolate the sky a bit for correction. Thanks so much for taking the time to help with this!

[Marina Scarr]

This first capture is just over the top with action. To think you got two birds attacking the hawk and it had a snake in its talons too, is just priceless. I do like the last repost the best.

I think this image could well win you more than just this award.

Marina

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Artie! I was not happy with the sky either. :cool: This image, even in the RAW, has a challenge in the sky. Tough trade-off between getting blue in the sky and keeping the rest from going too cyan. I like the more subdued reds you got in the bird. I'm not going to give up on this one though, and I think the next go will be to try some selection based on color and maybe isolate the sky a bit for correction. Thanks so much for taking the time to help with this!


YAW. Two questions in the search for perfection :)

1- Is the sky white in the RAW file?

2- Does the eye look sharp in the optimized file? (It does not look as sharp as everything else in the posted images...)

[Kerry Perkins]

Here is the next frame out of the camera, no adjustments made other than the slight contrast curve that LR2 made when it imported the file. You can see the major challenge with the light being in the wrong place. I'm a little perplexed by what happened when I added light using "fill light". I also think I got some color shift when converting from pro photo color space to sRGB. The print does not have as much of the color cast to it. :cool:

This was also shot with my 50D, sure wish I had had the 7D then... The eye is obviously not very sharp due to lack of any detail in the shadows and the legendary 50D issues with that situation.

I'm pretty much baring my soul by showing you this, but I'm still learning and there's no better way...