Black-headed Lapwing - Tsavo West

[Riaan Marais]

Black-headed Lapwing - on our first morning drive we saw these lapwings along the road. They were quite tame, nice birds to see!! The background is busy, but OOF. I am not keen on taking stuff away etc. (maybe not good enough at it) Advise will be appreciated?

Nikon D90, Nikon 200-400mm F4 VRI

ISO 200, S/S 1/640, F4

Riaan

[PhilCook]

Great looking bird ! Nice color and detail is V good, raised leg adds more interest as well. The backdrop is good, I rather like it with the cross thatched look and a nice blur to it. If it were me I'd remove the little bits of foliage on the bottom left, but understandably if you are not confident with removing objects best left alone { actually I know a lot of birders who refuse to remove anything from an image in the name keeping the shot natural }

[Ken Watkins]

Riaan,

Never seen one of these, it is delightful. I love the BG which is so typical of the messiness we often have to put up with in Africa.Great pose especially the foot lift. I would certainly keep the foliage on the RHS, that on the left could go, if you are using PS then it can be "magicked" away relatively easily with the clone or patch tools, just remember to marry up the OOF reeds.

Cheers

Ken

[Ken Watkins]

Riaan,

Never seen one of these, it is delightful. I love the BG which is so typical of the messiness we often have to put up with in Africa.Great pose especially the foot lift. I would certainly keep the foliage on the RHS, that on the left could go, if you are using PS then iy can be "magicked" away relatively easily with the clone or patch tools, just remember to marry up the OOF reeds.

Cheers

Ken

OOPS!

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely pose with the raised leg, Riaan. The pale grasses in the BG can be toned down with the clone stamp in darken mode at a lowish opacity - working on a new layer above the original gives you more control in masking out changes if you don't like them. My only suggestion is some more space below for the virtual foot hidden behind the earth.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Riaan, another good angle shooting from a vehicle, and you have certainly captured the 'perfect' pose - angled head and raised leg. I havent seen this lapwing species before, and agree on having more space below. You could try a vertical too.

[Riaan Marais]

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback, I will check the other images to see if there is room at the bottom. I will also try the vertical crop.

I tend to rather leave stuff in, but this sometimes don't make the purists very happy!!

Riaan