Northern Jaçana

Driving from Yucatan to Mexico City I passed the banding station of my friend Manuel Grosselet to see them working during the spring migration. They capture 1200 birds a week for banding. Impressive.

Light was bad, but I headed out for an hour of photography before continuing the trip. I saw this Northern Jaçana that came close for a few images. Editing these kind of pictures makes me want to take a class with Arash to learn his PP skills.:-) Comments are welcome.

1DMKIV
500mm+1.4TC
ISO1600
f:8
1/320
Skimmer pod
fill flash
Full frame, cropped for composition

Attachment 127117

Nice image, Lorant. The background is a little bright but it is an easy fix. The bird looks nice, excellent head turn and nice pose overall.

I agree that the bkgd is too bright, but the blur & soft colors are perfect. I like that the jacana is on just a slim line of in-focus vegetation. The OOF foreground and background frame the bird and the focused vegetation grounds him. I like the feather detail of the chestnut-colored back and wonder if you can tease a bit more detail in the black neck and head. Excellent pose.

Nice pose and I love the habitat. I'm OK with the brightness of the BG, I just find it a little yellowish overall. I would also add some canvas left and top, if you have it. Sounds like quite the place your friend has!

Hi Lorant, lovely low angle, and I like walking pose. Although the colours look good, I would still tone down the BG just a touch.