A Breaking Bad Thrasher

[Doug Brown]

I joined BPNer Miguel Palaviccini for some photography this afternoon at a great location in the foothills of the mountains. The bird activity was incredible, as was the light. For all of you Breaking Bad fans, this spot is a stone's throw from Hank & Marie Schrader's house. It's been a lot of fun having the series shot here in Albuquerque! Here's a Curve-billed Thrasher who perched on a nice cactus for us.

Canon 1Dx, 600mm II + 1.4x III, f/6.3, 1/500, ISO 800, manual exposure, hand held

[Doug Brown]

Here's a photo of me with Bryan Cranston; it was taken during the shoot earlier this season where he sat waiting at the Civic Plaza for Jesse Pinkman.

[Doug Brown]

And here's a photo of my wife (in the middle), a friend of ours, and Aaron Paul.

[Tim King]

I like the overall tone and perch. A touch more room all around would work IMO. Was the bird anywhere near Walt's buried stash?

[arash_hazeghi]

love the light and details would put a bit more room on the right.

excellent details

I can't believe you are wearing such a thick jacket already, I'm still in shorts and by the pool!

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image with wonderful color scheme. Very nice pose with open beak and yellow eye.
Beautiful composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Excellent detail Doug - and hand held - takes some doing - well done.

[gail bisson]

Lovely light and perch and HA.
I am trying to figure out why you have included the people pictures? Did you post them in the wrong forum?
Gail

[Doug Brown]

Lovely light and perch and HA.
I am trying to figure out why you have included the people pictures? Did you post them in the wrong forum?
Gail

Just trying to have a little fun Gail!

[Girish Prahalad]

beautiful portrait!. great details, perch, BG & light. comp looks perfect.

[Grace Scalzo]

Beautiful thrasher. Bird, perch and that sweet light all combine so well. Love the other photos as well.

[Doug Brown]

Here's a repost with a bit more room behind the bird. I also took the liberty of undoing a color balance adjustment in order to bring back more of the original warmth in the frame. How do you like this?

[gail bisson]

Aah..I get it now. These people must be the actors in the show you mentioned. Duh...I am obviously not a viewer of Breaking Bad!! Your comment said "shoot earlier this season" so I thought they were photographers that you went shooting birds with.
Gail

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the light, sharpness, IQ, pose and perch. Repost looks great. Excellent image Doug!

[Doug Brown]

Aah..I get it now. These people must be the actors in the show you mentioned. Duh...I am obviously not a viewer of Breaking Bad!! Your comment said "shoot earlier this season" so I thought they were photographers that you went shooting birds with.
Gail

I should have explained. Those are the stars of the show.

[Randy Stout]

Doug:
I like the thrasher, nice pose, sharpness.

Just for personal taste, I prefer the colors of the original post, just because it becomes a bit too monochromatic for my tastes with the color balance adjustment removed.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Doug, that is some sweet, sweet light. Super pose, and just love the overall detail and sharpness. I do prefer your repost with regards to more space on the RHS, but am uncertain about the colour of the trasher, as Im not familiar with it.

When I capture a subject in sweet light, I tend to desaturate some of the colour cast from the sweet light on the subject to make the subject look more natural. Maybe I should leave it as captured.

[vishaljadhav]

The IQ is lovely , the repost with some more room behind looks nicer to the eye but i would not have put that as a nit in the OP at all, the additional post helped
i love the eye and the light is surely lovely
superb image over all

[Brian E. Small]

Sweet shot Doug................and remember, "tread lightly"

[Karl Egressy]

Very nice image, I like the great light, perch, pose and background.

[Jamie Medford]

Beautiful image, the light is just lovely.

[Markus Jais]

Wonderful shot with great light and colors. Perch is awesome.

Markus

[Miguel Palaviccini]

I couldn't believe the action we had yesterday. Glad to see you got this frame with the open beak, great head angle, and clean bg.

I like the crop on the second a bit more, but wouldn't have mentioned it had I not seen it.

Miguel

[Greg Basco]

Cool shot, Doug. I love the warm light, the comp, and the cactus perch. In the picture with Bryan Cranston, the sky is blown. I would have exposed to keep the sky a deep blue and used multiple off-camera flashes to light the subject. I can give you a demo in Costa Rica in February.


Cheers,
Greg

[Doug Brown]

In the picture with Bryan Cranston, the sky is blown. I would have exposed to keep the sky a deep blue and used multiple off-camera flashes to light the subject. I can give you a demo in Costa Rica in February.

Thanks for the honest and gentle critique Greg! Looking forward to learning a thing or two from you in February!

[Greg Basco]

Ha! It was honest but not so gentle, right? :-)

Cheers,
Greg

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Awesome shot Doug!! My very favorite bird of all time..... If you ever want to spend a day shooting this species close up, you are welcome to spend the day in my backyard....

i have a family of curve bills every year, that have become like pets. They are super smart almost like parrots and will let me close to the nest which resides in a very old cholla we have.

i watched 2 somewhat juveniles build an entire nest about 2 months ago, late in the season and no eggs so I hope they use it next year.

will have to post a link to a YouTube video I did on the nest build, when the computer is fixed.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the comments everyone!