The snowies are back in Quebec, and while this bird isn't local, there are a couple ten thousand around these parts that look just like him. I took this the one time I've ever been to Bosque del Apache, and we had crummy conditions 3 straight days in a row (blue sky, strong wind against sun, and nowhere to take portraits that wasn't backlit), so I think I'll stick to the Victoriaville reservoir and save the plane ticket money. I'm curious to know what you all think, as I seldom do flight shots owing to the fact that I'm not very good at them!
Skinny:
7D mkII, 500mm f/4 IS
1/3200 @ f/8, ISO 400
ACR/Photoshop
Thanks for looking,
Jake
10-24-2017, 08:00 AM
gail bisson
Hi Jake,
I like the BG with the cloud layer at the bottom.
Your comp is good.
I think the head needs to be sharpened a bit more.
The whites look good but are almost blown over the neck so I would do some localized PP to that area to see if you can get more detail out of that area.
The light was a bit against you here( if the sun had been lower or the bird had banked a bit more ,the underwings would have lit up nicely).
A pretty solid flight image for someone who "is not very good at them!"
10-24-2017, 01:58 PM
Bob Smith
Jake I like the way you caught this one floating just above the BG cloud layer. These birds are so starkly white and black that shadows, even in good lighting conditions show up readily--as for example here where the underwings and tail are shaded. The head/face are a bit OOF, although not so much as to ruin the image I think. Exposure's good ( e.g.. just the tad of lightness in the wingtip blacks to the left side of the histogram and the visible breast feather details to the right side) so you might have gotten enough additional DOF to get the eye in focus if you had been shut down a click or two of aperture with a slower SS ( 1/1600 or even 1/1250 will usually freeze the wings for these birds).
