Banking Griffon Vulture

[shane shacaluga]

Had a recent encounter with a group of feeding Griffon Vultures. Although this was the best shot, i managed to clip the bottom of the wing whilst this bird was trying to gain altitude.

Not sure if the composition is fine or if I should add canvas anywhere but the bird is so big and head so small, that I wanted to keep the bird as large as possible in the frame

Nikon D7000
300f4 + 1.4x TC
f5.6
1/2000
ISO 640
Manual Evaluative metering from the sky +1
9 point centred AF with Continous mode using rear button focus

As mentioned I had to reconstruct the bottom of the lower wing using the previous shot of the same bird. Adjusted levels and some selective colour enhancements
Tried Linear burn on the whites of head neck and top of wings and it worked well
NR on BG and slightly on the bird and then sharpened
Brightened the eye socket at the end

Comment and critiques welcomed.

[arash_hazeghi]

it's a handsome vulture, a few issues here: you want to place the bird to the left of the frame so there is more space in front of him. it is too tight on both top and bottom. banking is nice but the shoooting angle was a bit steep.

the under-wings are quite underexposed and he looks a bit soft as presented, I would bring up the shadows and sharpen him more something like this:

[shane shacaluga]

That looks a whole lot better! Thanks a lot for the comments and the repost Arash!

I have a lot to learn.