The Bateleurs, Tawney Eagles and Vultures normally come down to certain waterholes to drink and bath over the midday heat. The opportunity is there, but it makes for challenging photography in the harsh light. Sweet light they are just not there...Manual exposure ensures correct exposure on subject, the BG has to be sorted out in PP. He just had a bath and was flapping his wings to dry them before take off, the S/S was to slow to prevent the wing-tip from blurring, but in my opinion it shows movement. In the dry months the bees are everywhere where water is present, note the bee on his feathers just above his left leg. Image captured at Cubitje, Northern Kalahari.
Techs : Nikon D3S with 600 F4
ISO 500
1/1250 @ 6,3
Manuel exp with S/S and F-stop set, ISO floating.
Does it ever look wet! It also looks quite miserable, but I am sure it is feeling nice and refreshed from the bath. I like the down-the-barrel look. I'd probably add a few points of blacks back to the shaded rocks below...if you lightened them you did so a little too much IMO which gave that area a washed out look. I'm also wondering if you got the wings opened up more in subsequent frames (I do like it this way, but it's fun to have a variety of poses for the files). Thanks for pointing out the bee...neat!
Stunning bird, pose, and bath. Love the stare. A good job of framing. The whole thing looks as if it were lightened just a bit too much but otherwise an excellent job with relatively harsh overhead light.
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Thank you for comment, Daniel. I spot metered on the blacks of bird to have exposure spot-on, the FG and BG was overexposed. Tried to darken, will do a masked curve layer on bottom rocks.
Thank you Arty, see explanation to Daniel.
Thank you Karl, Mohsen, Richard, Christopher, Frank and Rich
Hi Andre - Love the wet look. Lovely image. Always amazed at how you seem to cope with the harsh light that you forced to utilise to capture the wildlife in the FTP
Wet Lord Bateleur
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