Pretty flight shot James. I'm not sure the bird is bright. Maybe it's just the BG, which to me looks oversaturated. It overpowers the whole image for me. Here is a version in which I desaturated the BG by 44.
Great pose, James, which really shows off some gorgeous colors on this ibis. The raw material is great, but I think the image could be improved quite a lot with better image processing. In particular, the white balance/color tone seem very off (everything has a heavy yellow/green cast, even the bird feathers). Doug desaturation version is an improvment, but it has kept some of the funny color cast. For example, look at the breast feathers, which are much oranger than would be expected. Here's my own stab at an improvement, by tweaking the color balance in Photoshop (just one adjustment layer). It's not perfect, but I think it points in the right direction and reprocessing your RAW file should yield great results. I'd also suggest a little highlight recovery to try and tone down the bill a bit. Fine work James!
Hey Jim, Knowing the situation gives me a little insight to what it took to accomplish this nice in flight capture. Correct me if I am wrong but I bet it went something like this. Sun is sinking fast behind you, your eyes are on the Avocets,Stilts and other waders even though you know they (Ibis's) will be showing up any minute dropping in from the north with a split second to react before they land. Am I close?
Nice job on getting the in flight capture. Very difficult for me to pull that off with these birds in spite of my repeated attempts. Kudos !
White-faced Ibis
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