This fellow was very cooperative. Taken using my car as a hide at Bosque Del Apache. I drove slowly along, while watching him at the side of the road, took some pictures, moved closer, took some more, and finally he turned and looked at me, and I took the final series. These are wary birds, and I was lucky to get these shots before he ran into the underbrush.
Canon 20D, ISO 800, EF 300 mm f/4 L IS, f/8.0 @ 1/1600 sec., no flash. Post in LR 4.2, a little sharpening and noise reduction, added clarity, contrast.
Nice subject and great Bosque habitat! f/8 gave you all the DOF you needed. I might trim a little canvas off the left and add a bit up top if you've got it. I'd also bring up the darks in the bird a tad. One last thing; I'd consider darkening the foreground in the RLC.
Thanks to everyone for your kind comments. Doug: I'll work on it a little more, but this photo is full frame. I could take a bit off the left side and darken the grasses in the corner, as you suggest. I'll try the shadows slider and see if that brings up the darks in the bird. Thanks!
Same as original except I took a little off the bottom and left side (in order to retain the 2x3 aspect ratio; there was no more room at the top), tried to lighten the darks in the bird just a tad, and darkened the dried grass in the foreground. Thanks again for the helpful suggestions.
Wow, this is gorgeous. Though I like what you've done in the repost, I could see it going a bit brighter overall, would just bring up exposure a little and see how that looks. I really love the colors here, your low angle, and your composition.
Repost rocks! If you brighten the image, be careful of that bright bit of grass on the right hand side
of the frame on the edge...it's pretty bright already and I was actually thinking toning it down slightly
might be nice. This is one of the finest habitat type images I've seen of this species....you did extremely
well shooting from the car with only 300mm of focal length!
Roadrunner at Bosque
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