Off to the Mardi Gras ?

[PhilCook]

Gang Gang Cockatoo...adult male.

Pursued a couple of flocks of these flamboyant birds for about 4 days on my last little adventure away camping. I've never had the opportunity to see them before, and they are non existent in my home state of South Australia, but about 500klms east in the state of Victoria. A species that prefer the wetter parts of Australia and generally heavily forested regions. Very hard to spot in the trees where the feed exclusively, despite their vivid red crest, and generally the only way to find them is to be familiar with their distinctive call, sounding much like rusty hinges on a gate. This one and a few others by sheer chance came down low for a brief period to drink from the river.

This particular shot was taken just on dark so no good natural light available at the time forcing the use of flash...which I dislike doing. Many will say too tight in the frame I'm sure, but I like 'em like that

Canon 7D + 500 f4 = 1.4 x TC.....700mm, f5.6, ISO 2500, 1/250, pattern metering, flash fired, tripod mounted.....no crop, some noise reduction applies to backdrop, slight sharpen selectively and contrast tweak.

edit....just noticed this image has lightened up quite a lot upon uploading, and I'm thinking it now looks a bit lacking in contrast ?

[Randy Stout]

Phil:

What a hairdo! The contrast looks OK to me, and being slightly softer, doesn't look flashed.

I know your preference to not use flash, but it can make all the difference in tough lighting conditions like you described.

Pleasant BG colors with a bit of color noise still showing.

Cheers

Randy

[Joe Senzatimore]

What a great title to go along with such a fine image. Never discount the use of flash. Check out some sites and webinars and learn some great tricks for using it. I would rather not use it , but when I feel the need , I don't hesitate. I was fortuate enough to learn many techniques from Charles Glatzer , and it made a world of difference for me.
As to this maybe being a bit tight , that is a matter of taste. For me , I like this one as is.

[Ben_Sadd]

Really like this great looking bird. Hard to imagine they would be hard to spot with that style!

I am also ok with the framing and the contrast, although having never seen them you are probably best to make the call on that.

Even though, as Randy mentioned, there is a little colour noise in the background, in general it looks fantastic for ISO 2500 on the 7D.

[PhilCook]

Phil:

What a hairdo! The contrast looks OK to me, and being slightly softer, doesn't look flashed.

I know your preference to not use flash, but it can make all the difference in tough lighting conditions like you described.

Pleasant BG colors with a bit of color noise still showing.

Cheers

Randy

Taa.....the main reason I dislike flash is not so much a quality issue, but so many times I use it and the subject takes off.....in a flash if you'll pardon the pun. The use of flash I find really seems to upset a lot of birds, not always, but all too often. These particualr birds really did not like it, and only managed one or two shots before they took off to another tree

[PhilCook]

Really like this great looking bird. Hard to imagine they would be hard to spot with that style!

I am also ok with the framing and the contrast, although having never seen them you are probably best to make the call on that.

Even though, as Randy mentioned, there is a little colour noise in the background, in general it looks fantastic for ISO 2500 on the 7D.

Sometimes the 7D surprises me with it's noise handling ability, much of the time it frustrates me...thanks for looking

[PhilCook]

What a great title to go along with such a fine image. Never discount the use of flash. Check out some sites and webinars and learn some great tricks for using it. I would rather not use it , but when I feel the need , I don't hesitate. I was fortuate enough to learn many techniques from Charles Glatzer , and it made a world of difference for me.
As to this maybe being a bit tight , that is a matter of taste. For me , I like this one as is.

Thanks Joe, glad you liked him, I'll have a look at Charles Glatzer sometime....and liking the beer cheer emoticon hehehehe....{ " seemingly brushes a fly from the corner of his eye, and sniffs "....have to be Australian to understand that one hehehe }

[Ken Watkins]

Phil,

What a remarkable looking bird, his hairdo reminds me of the punk Mohicans from the late 70's. I am not enough of a bird photographer to fully understand the effect of flash usage on them.

[Satish Ranadive]

Gorgeous image.Nice inquisitive pose.I like the cute and beautiful bird with artistic design and his red color hairdo.

Regards,
Satish.

[Richard Unsworth]

Sucha great bird Phil; really enjoy seeing your different species.
Rest has been said, IMO and I have one noise is a really big issue with the 7D and you got a pretty good result from 2500

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely Gang Gang image, Phil. You used your opportunity perfectly and the flash did what you needed. I have found using fill flash that most birds seem to completely ignore it when used as fill in bright situations - occasionally at a waterhole the first pop with cause a bird to twtich but thereafter it is ignored. The darker the situation the more it seems to bother them which is understandable but even photographing sandgrouse in near dark after a pop or 2 they ignore it. In NZ I often need flash in the bush and our birds seldom are bothered by it as they are very trusting having evolved in a predator-free environment.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Cool looking bird, and thanks for the description too. Love the pose, and the vertical comp was a no-brainer for it. Great performance by the maligned 7D...I always found it performed better than what we hear about, but the rather pale BG did help with that.

[christopher galeski]

nice image Phil,nice colorful bird.thanks.

[Doug Brown]

Cool looking bird Phil. You did a great job with high ISO on the 7D, and your use of fill flash is very effective.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Phil, love the pose, and the red head and crest pops so well from the lighter BG. Good use of flash.