EOS-1D Mk IV, 500mm f/4L IS, 1/1600, f/8, ISO 400
Manual exposure at Sunny 16 ... then reduced exposure in ACR by 0.35.
Manual fill flash at -2.
About 85% of Full Frame (full width of vertical original cropped from top to 8x10 ratio).
Here's another image from this past May at St. Augustine Alligator Farm.
This bird was in mega breeding plumage and in the midst of an all out display.
He would go into a deep crouch as seen here and then thrust his head into the air into a full stretch and repeat it many times.
I was able to capture many different postures during the display but I thought this was one of the more interesting and unusual.
Hi Mike,
I like the pose. I believe that behavior is called "sky pointing".
i feel that some of the detail has been lost in the whites especially around the neck. It could be my monitor.
Another vote to eliminate the stray branch on LUC.
I like the contrast of white and green with a pop of red.
Gail
Nicely framed (not easy at that location!) and certainly a great pose. I'm not a huge fan of lots of cleanup but that branch urc isn't adding anything. Beautiful colors.
I find the behavior and feather details, combined with the IQ, FG & BG, so captivating that the vegetation on the URC doesn't detract. Would removing it improve the image? Sure but then it would no longer be what you witnessed and captured.