Long-Billed Curlew Ejects Pellet [Archive] - BirdPhotographers.net

Melissa Groo

03-07-2012, 03:47 PM

Canon 1D4
500mm
Gitzo/Wimberley spread low

1/2000 sec
ISO 1000
f/4.5

Took this on a Fort Myers beach on a cloudy afternoon about 10 days ago. Hadn't known until this happened that some shorebirds do this. Not the best shot ever, but I thought it was so interesting behaviorally that I wanted to share it with my fellow BPNers.
I got this shot as well as one just a fraction of a second earlier where head is angled towards me and you can see the bolus emerging up through the throat.

Slight crop, a small amount of Detail Extraction in Nik, sharpening, a few blobs cloned out. Some darkening of BG in Viveza, there was a lot of glare and I had to overexpose the BG to get detail on the bird.
Thank you for looking. All C and C greatly encouraged and appreciated.

Geir Jensen

03-07-2012, 04:02 PM

I liked this one. A funny image. Nice BG.

Stuart Hill

03-07-2012, 05:22 PM

Great timing and love the way the bird pops from the high key background.

Marina Scarr

03-07-2012, 07:26 PM

What an awesome behavior capture, Melissa. It's not often that you even see this, never mind capture it.

Troy Lim

03-07-2012, 11:27 PM

Totally agree with Marina. I would rather have this type of behavior shot over just standard portrait.

Tom Rambaut

03-08-2012, 12:12 AM

Interesting now the bird remains on one leg while doing this. Must have good balance.

Robert Holguin

03-08-2012, 01:04 AM

Excellent shot. Great behavior captured. Great shooting angle, excellent detail, very nice light, and excellent timing.
Very well done.

arash_hazeghi

03-08-2012, 03:16 AM

nice behavior sharp and nice soft light.

Chris Martinez

03-08-2012, 05:14 AM

Awesome behavioural.
Totally love the whole combination of tongue poking out, spit trail leading to pellet and the pellet against the upper mandible. That alone would make a cool abstract(y) type photograph.
Reflection in the eye is nice.
I love it!!

christopher galeski

03-08-2012, 07:08 AM

very nice image,love the light,nice detail,I had some shots of a redshank casting a pellet,but lost them on my old computer,when it decided to die.thanks.

Randy Stout

03-08-2012, 08:29 AM

Melissa:

Great behavioural shot, I have never seen a pellet from a shorebird. Good shooting angle, timing.

I find the image a little too bright for my tastes. Ran a luminosity layer, used the multiply blend mode set at 50%, to tone down the highlights a bit. Lots of options here!

I like

Melissa Groo

03-08-2012, 09:13 AM

Thanks for all the comments. Randy, I like what you've done here. Just duplicated it at home and definitely looks better. Thanks a bunch!

Sandy McMillan

03-08-2012, 09:38 AM

Thanks for posting this! I have never seen this before. I like the repost better.

Frank Schauf

03-10-2012, 03:09 AM

Perfect comp and bg, nice work!