Secretary Take-off

[Morkel Erasmus]

Just back from a lovely 2 weeks in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

I was taking photos of this iconic Secretary Bird standing in the tall grass of the Nossob riverbed when it suddenly took a few running steps towards me and took off. I managed to capture a few sharp frames as it flew straight at me. I wish I was stopped down to f8 for more DOF, but I specifically opened up to f5.6 to get more separation between FG grass, bird and BG grass, when it decided to fly towards me. Alas, as Artie has said before, the eye and face are sharp, and that's what matters :w3.

Their numbers are declining and a number of research efforts are underway to determine the root cause of this phenomenon.

Techs:
f5.6 | 1/1600 SS | ISO-640
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
Nikkor 1.4x teleconverter

[Doug Brown]

Sharp where it counts, and the eye contact is great. Nicely composed, but I'd lighten the dark part of the BG up top. You could selectively sharpen the neck and leading wing edge to enhance the image a bit.

[Dave Leroy]

Nice one Morkel and a tough one to get with bird coming so much at you. I like Doug's suggestions and may add a bit more sharpening to head area as well.

[Yves Guillot]

This is very nice Morkel! I like that pose and BG! Congrats!

[Arno Ellmer]

Great capture ,Morkel.Not often that one catches them in flight and you have done extremely well,especially with it flying towards you.Doug's comments cover sharpness and I would also remove dark patches at top.
Looking forward to many more images from your trip!

[Jamie Douglas]

Awesome angle Morkel... love the upturned wing tips and agree that a touch of sharpening and cleaning up the top right hand corner spot will take this up a notch.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for the generous feedback folks. The head and eye are a bit sharper when I view this 1000px-wide image in PS. Will perhaps add another slight round to the head for a repost.
Jamie - I was in 2 minds about the blue bit in top RHC. You know I won't clone it, so the only option is to crop, but cropping it out renders the image too tight at top and RHS for my liking :e3

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful image. Great pose, bg and details.

[Grace Scalzo]

I like the slicked back head feathers and big beautiful wings. I wouldn't clone either here, just crop down a tiny bit to eliminate the bit of blue in the Upper right corner. A bit more sharpening won't hurt this presentation.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mork, Its not easy locking on to any subject coming towards you unexpected, so you have done well with this frame. Sharp where it counts, and just love that BG. Well placed in the frame too.

I have a couple of frames from Kruger last year of these guys walking through grasslands, so Im envious you have one in flight. :w3

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great shot Morkel, for me that blue patch is totally inconsequential, the bird grabs my full attention, I really like the shot as presented.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Morkel, we dont see many flight shots of this species. you nailed this one. liked the light on the face and with the shadow behind the face, it has a great pop.

[Jamie Douglas]

Jamie - I was in 2 minds about the blue bit in top RHC. You know I won't clone it, so the only option is to crop, but cropping it out renders the image too tight at top and RHS for my liking :e3

I respect your boundaries on cloning Morkel and agree that cropping will render the image a little too tight. Maybe lightening the dark patch as mentioned by Doug might make the RHC less of a distraction. Or you could just leave as is because it is a fine image and I am not one to get hung up on a small nit :e3 :cheers:


P.S I hope your wife is doing well with pregnancy # 2, we have our 1st arriving early next month :5

[Sid Garige]

Brilliant one Morkel. Great details and excellent light.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for all the feedback, folks!