Just Another Roseate Spoonbill

[James Shadle]

Nikon D700
Sigma 300-800 @ 800mm with Kenko Pro DG 2X = 1600mm
ISO 800 1/800 @ F16
Manual Focus and Exposure
Almost full frame, a little dodging and surface blur at the top.

Tampa Bay via "The Hooptie Deux"
With Artie M, Daniel C, Denise I, Randy S, Robert A and last but least Roman K.

Hit and Run, I'll be able to offer critiques tonight.

Thanks for looking.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great Expo here, nice colors with a lovely angle to add to it.. nicely done james bhai...

[Brendan Dozier]

Amazing looking bird! Pose, exp., color, detail look excellent. Well done Captain James!

[Tin Man Lee]

Beautiful!! The water droplet adds dynamic to an almost zen-like peaceful posture. I like the dark background a lot.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

With all of you on board, am sure the Spoonies were giving their best poses :-) Stunning capture, this one. great angle, colors, light, comp....that water drop is nice extra touch. Some eye doctoring will improve it IMO.

[Bill Dix]

Wonderful. This spoonie is certainly in great plumage - looks like a flower. Nicely done.

[James Shadle]

Kaustubh,
What kind of eye doctoring?
Thanks!

[Charles Glatzer]

James,

This is one STUNNING image!!!!!!!!!

Chas

[Morkel Erasmus]

awesome pose, light, details and exposure here El Capitan! didn't believe this image quality if possible at those settings with a 2x on the Sigmonster...:eek:

[Troy Lim]

Another great spoonbill shot from you James.

[Arthur Morris]

Killer. Getting lower than me helped. I am impressed with the surface blur stuff. I did not know that you went there :)

Love the water droplet. Thanks again for a great morning.

[Danny J Brown]

I really think this is the coolest spoonbill shot I've ever seen. The combo of the pose, plumage and color handling all come together to make this, well.......the coolest spoonbill shot I've ever seen! The white on the neck, the butterscotch along the face......the coolest spoonbill shot........whoops, I already said that!

DB

[DanWalters]

Love the light and colors of the bird. Great pose as well.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Not often you get two Sigmonsters in the water!!! With the 2x.......I only have one word (maybe more:2eyes2:) for the non believers...Sigma....Sigma......sigma.....now i have to go out and get the 2x!
Great day with great people.....what more could you ask for as a b-day present?!!!:bg3:

[James Shadle]

Killer. Getting lower than me helped. I am impressed with the surface blur stuff. I did not know that you went there :)

Love the water droplet. Thanks again for a great morning.

Artie,
I will dodge and burn, however the blur is not where I normally go. That's why I made sure I mentioned it.
I overheard you explaining a blur technique Denise showed you. What the heck, I figured I'd give it a try. A little dab will do ya.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent capitain, super pose, did you have the tighten the mongoose screws before taking this :D ?

[Randy Stout]

James:

To quote a famous spoonbill guy, this is "one stud of a bird". Superb breeding colors,great black band and bill markings.

Great pose.

Interesting to see the subtle differences in color between this image and my images of this same guy.
Your colors are slightly warmer, less pink than mine.

I do see what Kaustubh was saying about the eye. The catchlight is so large that to me it tends to reduce the apparent sharpness of the eye. Probably looks great when seen larger.

Thanks again, for the great outing!!

Cheers

Randy

[James Shadle]

excellent capitain, super pose, did you have the tighten the mongoose screws before taking this :D ?


Mongoose screws all good this time!
However I did break a tripod the day before I took this image:e3 and was using my backup Aluminum Gitzo.

[James Shadle]

James:

To quote a famous spoonbill guy, this is "one stud of a bird". Superb breeding colors,great black band and bill markings.

Great pose.

Interesting to see the subtle differences in color between this image and my images of this same guy.
Your colors are slightly warmer, less pink than mine.

I do see what Kaustubh was saying about the eye. The catchlight is so large that to me it tends to reduce the apparent sharpness of the eye. Probably looks great when seen larger.

Thanks again, for the great outing!!

Cheers

Randy

Randy,
This is a "stud" bird!

There is not a catchlight, there are catchlights. One from the sun above and one from the sun's reflection on the water.
Looks great large, one of those things lost in the .jpg compression translation.

I didn't do much with the colors, I brought the image up a little with levels and took some red out.

Great having the band together this last week.

PS Randy is a Rock In Roll animal!

[Indranil Sircar]

James, what a beautiful bird with that stunning color! Love the low angle pose and surface blur. It was good to meet you finally. Sure missed the ride on Hooptie... hope to make it next time.

[Mark Hardymon]

James - What a stunning shot, would have to agree it may be the best spoonbill I have seen! It was great to see you again the other day, hope I can get down and maybe have another shot at these beautiful birds.

[stuart wanuck]

Love the image

[Sid Garige]

You make extraordinary image with extraordinary gear James.

[Daniel Cadieux]

First, thanks for an awesome day on the bay! Yet another great experience aboard the Hooptie Deux, and along some great company.

Excellent image. Colours look great, and so does the water and BG. Of course that water drop adds a neat touch to it all.

P.S. Rock on!

[Robert Amoruso]

Stunning image James. Thanks for the day out, and all the great company.

[annmpacheco]

I like a stud bird that wears pink!!! A day with you on the Hooptie Deux is on my bucket list James.

So gorgeous Thank you