Midstride Jacana

[gail bisson]

One of the few shots I am happy with of this difficult bird to shoot.
Okavengo Delta, Botswana at 5:00PM
Canon 1D MKIV
F 500mm
ISO 400
f 6.3
SS 1/2000
Cropped to 70% full frame as a pano. Cloned a bud out from between his legs
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail
PS. I did not clone a bud out from between the legs. I was thinking about another shot later in this sequence. The perimenopausal brain at work...

[PhilCook]

Great timing Gail, these birds have always fascinated me, nice composition, but can just see where the bud was cloned out between it's legs

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Hi Gail, you've got an excellent pose here. Bird angle and shooting angle are both great and so is the light.
I'm sure you were stoked to see this on the back of your camera.
Minor nit - wish that the right foot wasn't overlapping the bud in the bg.
The lily(?) at the top left distracts me a bit, but terrific image.

[gail bisson]

Thanks for the comments.
I am losing my marbles because when I went back to the RAW to fix the bud I thought I had cloned out and.. there is no bud!! It was another image that I cloned a bud from!
There is an irregular area between the legs but that is in the RAW.
I did a redo with removing the lily in LUC,
Gail

[dankearl]

Cool pose in what looks like a difficult setting.
I like the repost better, I still might think about removing the dark blotches in the BG.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great action, and I love the nice view of the long claws. Details look good, exposure spot-on. I know you wanted to include the full lily pad at left, for compositional purposes I feel it would be fine to crop it out in half. Still OK as is, but an option worth exploring.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Terrific image! Like the repost a bit better, as I was going to mention the lily as well.

[Karl Egressy]

Great action shot of a cool looking bird, Gail.

[Raymond Lee]

Great action capture! The repost is much better.

[John Cooper]

Well captured gail, you really caught the Jacana in full stride here and the pano crop has created a strong composition - another vote for the repost. Intriguing how these birds appear to be walking on water resulting in them being refered to as the Jesus-bird..!!

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

Since I get easily distracted, I find the lilly pad turned up quite distracting, and agree with Daniel that coming in a bit from the left would improve the overall comp. I have attached a small tweak along these lines.

Just an option for you.

Randy

[Arno Ellmer]

Great action shot,Gail and excellent timing.You have captured a very difficult bird with a good bg to go with it ( I know how difficult the environment usually is with these guys).
Randy's version is imo an improvement of a very good shot.

[Satish Ranadive]

Gail:
If I am not mistaken,this must be one of 6 pictures out of 1600.Very hard efforts,and efforts always pay.
Absolutely superb image in panorama crop. Wonderful timing and great moment captured.
Love the full stretch wings,colors,details and environment.

Regards,
Satish.

[David Salem]

Another nice shot of this very unique bird. Your efforts paid off with a cool shot. The pose with open wings and the big feet running are great. Techs look good and nice detail. Well done. I like the last re-post the best.

[Shawn Zierman]

Awesome action... and sharp! I also like the creative comp.
The upturned lilly pad did not really bother me, I liked the first repost a-plenty!
And yet...Randy's repost is also easy to dig. Either or for me :)

[christopher galeski]

its all been said,very nice capture.thanks.

[gail bisson]

Thank you all for the helpful comments.
Satish- you have a great memory! 6/1600 is correct!
Randy-thanks for the repost and taking the time. I like both versions- yours and mine!
Gail

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, I know how fast these guys run across the water, so well done capturing this hand held from a boat. Colours look good, as is the running pose, and since we saw the leaf on the left in the OP, Im fine with that comp. The repost does work too.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent running pose what a unique image. I'd sharpen him a tad more, they run super fast!