Fairy Prion

These gorgeous little birds are the smallest of the prion family. All are blue-grey with a characteristic letter 'm' on the dorsal side. They are circumpolar in distribution and nest in burrows on sub-Antarctic and sub-tropical islands in the Southern Hemisphere. The shot was taken in early morning light on 1 January 2014 in the Snares group of islands, New Zealand sub-Antarctic. Thanks for looking - critical feedback welcome.
Canon 5DIII + 300 mm f/2.8L II + 2x III extender, hand-held.
Av priority, f/8, 1/1600 sec, ISO 800, -1/3 EV.
Post processing in DPP: crop, DLO, USM, RAW-jpeg. PS Elements: adjust shad/h'lights, sharpen bird, background NR, downsize, USM.

What an amazing looking bird and boy does it pop against that gorgeous dark blue BG. Nice flight pose. This couldn't have been an easy capture!

Nice shot of the bird Ian. Interesting picture, with the dark water and bright bird it almost looks like the bird was cut out of a different shot and placed on that background.

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Originally Posted by Colin Driscoll

Nice shot of the bird Ian. Interesting picture, with the dark water and bright bird it almost looks like the bird was cut out of a different shot and placed on that background.

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You can have a look at the RAW file if you wish. I have not changed the brightness or levels, only shad/h'lights 10%/10% and the other processing as described in the post.

Not at all suggesting that you did that Ian, just that is how it looks :S3:

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Originally Posted by Colin Driscoll

Not at all suggesting that you did that Ian, just that is how it looks :S3:

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Thanks for your clarification. As you know, I am new here and I was distressed by your feedback. I should also note that the image has not had the contrast or saturation adjusted. The only processing is as described in my post.

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Originally Posted by Ian Wilson

....I was distressed by your feedback.

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Oh dear, sorry to do that to you Ian!

First rate flight photo of an absolutely striking bird.
Obscure to most of us, thanks a lot for posting this.

Good looking little bird. I encountered one off Wollongong last July and even at 500mm it was small in the frame. There is a bit of detail missing from the feathers so my guess is that this is a fairly large crop?

Well done for tracking it though. :)

I like the topside view, I also like the waves in the BG. details look crunchy and over sharpened however. There is a sharpening halo around the bird.
BTW, I would not use DLO for a shot like this given the gear you use, it makes it worse.

TFS

well done Ian. The colours are lovely :S3:

Thanks to all for feedback, especially Arash for technical advice. I have reworked this image, probably the way I should have done it in the first place. DPP: crop, USM, RAW to tiff. PS Elements: minor adjustment to shad/h'lights, tiff to output jpeg, output sharpen with USM (75, 0.5, 3). Thanks for looking.
Cheers, Ian

Excellent image of beautiful bird. Seeing for the first time. Love the topside view and blue water.

Regards,
Satish.