Comb-crested Jacana (Irediparra gallinacea) Knuckey Lagoons NT

Comb-crested Jacana (Irediparra gallinacea) Knuckey Lagoons NT Australia
Canon EOS 40D Lens 100-400mm L IS USM at 400 mm ISO 400 F6.3 1/2000 Fill flash 23 August 2009

Knuckey Lagoons is only a few miles south of Darwin and at first glance this lagoon is very open and not that promising because of this . However once I was settled working from a cam hide on a chair saw the jacanas feed within range. This species had always been a to do item and now that I have spent many hours with them they remain a top species. Good eye , colourful, interesting anatomy and great poses plus they when isolated within their habitat all adds up to a magic experience.
Thanks for viewing
Best regards
Rod Warnock

Nice photo, pity the angle of light caused shadow to be with no detail on body & wing. Good to see some water in OZ

Nice job in harsh light Rod. You might be able to rescue some more detail from the dark areas. Love the mid-stride action.

cheers
Rob

I like this Rod. Sharp with good detail and the raised foot showing these huge toes makes this shot for me.

Beautiful species, and lovely posture. I think you could enhance the image quite a bit by cleaning up the background and lifting the details in the dark feathers?

Hi Rod

I could not resist playing a bit with your lovely image of the Jacana, I hope you don't mind;). I cleaned up the background, changed the crop slightly to a more pano format, ran a gaussian blur on the background, did two mild sharpening passes on the bird, increased the midtone contrast slightly in levels, and did a shadow/highlight on the dark body feathers at 10/20/30 settings. Hope you like...:D

Thank you indeed Chris !! I appreciate greatly what you have done as despite years taking with film I am new to digital processing and am always open to help. I like your version a lot !! Again thank you.
Best regards
Rod Warnock

Only a pleasure Rod!