Wood Stork Fly Over

[DaveKlein]

Greetings BPN Members and Happy New Year! I am returning to post after a lengthy absence and am eager to learn from your critiques and feedback. This image was made on a photo workshop I attended with Robert Amaruso and Robert O'Toole at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. The Wood Stork flew directly overhead with an attractive piece of nesting material. I particularly like the simplicity and symmetry of the image and since the sky was rather featureless I decided to make this a slightly tighter crop than the original capture. Technical details are as follows: Nikon D300s, matrix metering, manual mode, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII @ 70mm with fill flash via Nikon SB-800, 1/500 sec., ISO 500, f/6.3. I welcome and look forward to any and all C and C. Thank you for viewing and sharing your thoughts!

[Robert Holguin]

Very unique image.
Love the wing position, terrific comp, love the high key and nesting material.
Well done.

[Steve Canuel]

Great wing spread on this one and I like the subtle underwing detail.

[DaveKlein]

Thank you Robert and Steve for you comments - much appreciated

[Randy Stout]

Welcome back Dave:

A very effective image, high key works well in this situation, and the nesting material adds sig. here.

Good choice to use fill flash to open up the underwings a bit.

I would consider adding just a sliver more room on each side.

Cheers

Randy

[Nick Palmieri]

I think you handled a tough exposure very well. Nice high key presentation and I think the position of the bird above your head is interesting. TFS

[DaveKlein]

Thank you Randy and Nick for your comments!

[Marina Scarr]

Great to have you back, Dave, and what a terrific image! Love the symmetry and all the details under the wings you were able to expose with use of effective fill flash. If you have the room, I agree that a little more room on left and right would raise this image to an even higher level. Well done and looking forward to more of your posts.

[DaveKlein]

Thank you for your thoughtful comments Marina!

[PhilCook]

Interesting perspective, not something we see very often and it works nicely, excellent wing spread and of course the leaf material is an extra nice touch

[DaveKlein]

Thanks Phil for your comments - much appreciated!

[Robert vanMierop]

Nice exposure on a bird that ain't always easy to get right. Effective use of the sb800 too. It's on again down here in about 45 days!