Laugh It Up Funny Boy !!!

[PhilCook]

Australian Laughing Kookaburra.........

Reason for the oddball title is a couple of minutes after taking this picture this lousy rotten @#@%*$!!! of a bird flew down and stole my T-bone steak dinner off my BBQ plate.......... grrrrrrrrrr !


Canon 7D + 500 f4.....f5, ISO 400, 1/125, +0.3 EV, flash fired.....taken in deep shade, tripod mounted...cloned out some spots of bird poop off the branch, slight crop, selective sharpen and noise reduction to backdrop


edit....I think I just over did the brightness on uploading this.....here's the one it should of been

edit 2.....oops, I must of deleted the first one....sorry

[Jim Neiger]

I like the comp, pose, perch, and bg, but the image looks a wee bit overexposed.

[PhilCook]

I like the comp, pose, perch, and bg, but the image looks a wee bit overexposed.

Taa, the original isn't overexposed, I just mucked it up with another tweak just before uploading, should of left it alone

[Randy Stout]

Phil:

I guess we know who got the last laugh on this occasion. !

NIce pose, sharpness, BG. Agree with Jim about a sliver overexposed, look forward to your repost with this addressed.

Cheers

Randy

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Excellent look back pose, perch and clean bg. The comp is very nice too although I'd add just a bit more to the bottom.
Always meant to ask you, what does taa mean?

[dankearl]

It looks fine exposure wise to me, maybe a tad more sharpening.
Great looking bird, you seem to have the best looking birds down under, I hope
to get there someday!

[Don Nelson]

excellent pose - hope to see a repost with less exposure and a bit more sharpening.
No pictures of the bird with your T-bone? And just how big are these birds????

[Karl Egressy]

Smart Bird!!! Excellent shot, Phil. Love to se the colourful tail. The pose is very nice, so is the background.

[Satish Ranadive]

Hi Phil:
Great composition.Now I know why,he has given you such a nice pose...BTW why should he pose for free of charge?
Love the pose,HA,colors,perch and beautiful BG. Perfect use of flash.

Regards,
Satish.

[Nick Palmieri]

I really like the looking back pose. Nice perch and BG. Too bad about your steak..did he eat the whole thing???

[Mike Milicia]

Great bird ... excellent pose and wonderful BG!

[Julie Brown]

What a gorgeous bird! The pose really shows a lot of nice field marks. Nice head turn and background too!

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot.
Terrific pose, I really like the perch, wonderful background, and great comp.
Well done.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Phil, you have captured a lovely pose, and I like how we can see the different colours on the wing and tail. Bird and perch pop nicely from the BG.

I thought I would show you my version. Sharpened the bird and perch at 30%, and ran a multiply blending layer at 55%. WDYT?

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose, BG details and HA. The repost by Stu is perfect re whites.

[David Salem]

Great shot and love the fact that he likes steak too. All looks good and Stuarts re-post adds some more detail and controlled the whites a bit more. Nice work and keep your eyes open around the barby mate

[PhilCook]

Excellent look back pose, perch and clean bg. The comp is very nice too although I'd add just a bit more to the bottom.
Always meant to ask you, what does taa mean?

That's embarrassing...taa is simply an English term meaning " thankyou "....I forget sometimes that others may not grasp English slang...apologies.

So " thanks for looking ".....or taa muchly

[PhilCook]

It looks fine exposure wise to me, maybe a tad more sharpening.
Great looking bird, you seem to have the best looking birds down under, I hope
to get there someday!

Dan, thanks ...but I beg to differ.....you have the best birds over your way...especially the Owls, Hummingbirds, Woodpeckers and Eagles to name a few. Hope you do make it over here one day, the east Coast of Oz is the best area overall, I live in the far south

[PhilCook]

Hi Phil, you have captured a lovely pose, and I like how we can see the different colours on the wing and tail. Bird and perch pop nicely from the BG.

I thought I would show you my version. Sharpened the bird and perch at 30%, and ran a multiply blending layer at 55%. WDYT?

Thanks Stuart, always a pleasure to see editing from others eyes....much better I think, it has brought out more detail, but personally I prefer the perch less sharpened....such great help on this forum

[PhilCook]

Finally....thanks and taa to everyone for looking and commenting, and to answer one question a few asked..............

yes he ate pretty much all of my steak dinner, and had an altercation with another Kookaburra over ownership. These birds are notorious for raiding picnic tables and Barby plates, sometime they can become even friendlier, a friend of mine hand feeds them from the sun deck on their home in the Adelaide Hills

[Sidharth Kodikal]

That's embarrassing...taa is simply an English term meaning " thankyou "....I forget sometimes that others may not grasp English slang...apologies.

So " thanks for looking ".....or taa muchly

Taa back at you.

Not in any of my English dictionaries, may be I'll scribble it in :)

[Sachin Saraf]

what a beautiful bird...I liked the re post better...nice look back pose, exposure, BG and details...