Royal Spoonbill

Hi all. Been busy putting a website together, but still managing to get out as much as I can. Here's a Royal Spoonbill I photographed recently. Not as pretty as the Roseate variety, but that's all we have here in Brisbane.


D500/500PF. 1/1600th sec@f5.6, iso800, manual mode. Basic adjustments in PS and cropped for presentation. Thanks as always for looking and commenting.

Great pose with lifted foot and eye contact. The strong BG does seem to overpower the bird a bit though.

Love the leg lift pose! Great job on the whites. I don't find the BG a problem at all. It just gives the image a HK feel IMO. Very nicely done Paul! BTW, I like seeing this different species

Thanks so much Colin and Kurt...appreciate the feedback.

Neat subject, and the raised foot adds interest. Good clean beach. I do feel the image is a touch bright overall, and maybe a bit tight comp-wise. BTW, perfect head angle here.

Love the eye and that yellow spot! The bird and the raised foot rock! Low would likely have been better.

with love, artie

Paul, a neat view of this SB. I've not seen one and certainly different from the Roseate here in the US.

Lots of positives here; great pose and eye contact with the raised foot, nice clean bkg.

I think it has lots of potential. Do agree to loosen the crop just a touch and you might also look at adding a couple points of warmth and even magenta, of course compared with how you actually saw it.

Also, worth a look to mask the subject in PS and maybe selectively darken the bkg just a little to create separation on the subject. I could also use a slight bit more sharpening, esp in the face and legs/feet.

TFS!

Thanks Daniel, Artie & Brian...will look into the suggestions. Cheers.

Cool looking spoonbill. The black legs/bill and white feathers go great together.

Hi John. Thank you for the kind feedback. Cheers.

Nice frame. Don't know this bird at all but that face! Great.

Thanks Jay:S3:

Hi Paul ... neat looking subject and very difficult to deal with in this kinda location !!!
You did well under the given circumstances , I do like the pose and the right shooting angle .

I would prefer a wider crop for his " royalty " .....:w3

And I would try a real " high key approach " .... which means , all does go very bright and low contrast in the darker tones . I think the image , due to its nature , is crying to try it and see how it goes .
Personally I would separate the subject from the surrounding and work on both slightly different ... meaning going very bright in the surrounding and keeping a " ghostly " subject .
For sure an artistic approach ....

TFS Andreas

Hi Andreas. Thank you for the feedback and suggestions. Actually the original was a wider crop, but I took some off the right hand side as I felt it was too much, but as Daniel and you have commented, the original 12x8 crop might be better. There have been a few background/foreground suggestions here, so I might try them. Cheers.