Juvenile Disrespect

[Gabriela Plesea]

Been talking earlier about Bateleur behaviour...It was a great privilege to witness the landing of these majestic birds at Cubitje Quap water hole and to see them interact. Here the mature Bateleur (LHS) is surprised by the sudden landing of this juvenile, for he was busy grooming himself and had not paid attention to his surroundings. Interesting that they did not fight but the older one showed some aggression towards the new arrival, some subtle signs of submission from the juvenile followed and things went back to normal.

No cloning this time, except for seven distracting OOF bees (where there's water there are bees in the Kalahari). No blurring of BG either, although I was tempted. Brought down exposure on the rocks as this was shot with spot metering and my only concern were the Bateleurs at the time. Tried to get some detail in the feathers but not lose the colours. Few rounds of sharpening, I am never sure when an image is sharp enough. Kindly let me know what you think, I welcome any critique, be it technical or otherwise.

Wishing you all a great week ahead,

...and if you are away from home-some great sightings

Nikon D3S
Nikon 500/F4
F5.6
ISO400
1/2000s
Spot metering
and...
...few bottles of still mineral water, since it was very hot and dry and being dehydrated is not cool in the Kalahari

[gail bisson]

Wonderful interaction you captured here. Exposure and techs are spot on.
It is nice to see the physical differences between the juvie and the adult.
You have done very well with the midday sun and it really doesn't impact at all on the image.
I like the shadow of the primaries on the rock and the water trail made by the adult.
I see a sharpening halo in front of the far wing on the adult so would back off on the sharpening a bit.
I would also clone out the line in the BG between the 2 eagles.
I am glad you advised us of your cloning work, Very interesting about the bees.
Gail

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Gail so much for your input and for taking the time to view! I will take a look at the sharpening tonight when I get home, cannot see the halo on my laptop Regarding the line between the eagles-perhaps I should fade it, this is the edge of the water and it goes all the way to the left side of the image. What do you think about the bees, I was told so many time to lose the bees that now I take them out as a first step in PS work Funny enough, I used to like them because they are part of the environment-no water hole without bees in the Kalahari. They are great for the bee-eaters too!

Many thanks again Gail, have a wonderful afternoon!

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent interaction with great pose and details for both. The light could have been a bit softer but you handled it nicely

TFS

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you kindly Arash, I wish I could steal your light-and I am talking about your beautiful burrowing owls now I tried to do as little as possible to this image, I quit adding filters and painting and only cloned out the bees and did the basic PP work. I am very taken with your images, love the light and the IQ is always superb.

Warmest regards

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm liking the action and interaction here. Good job with the harsh light. I kinda wish we had a better view of the splashing and feet of the left bird, but getting higher would have not made for as nice a perspective on this so the compromise is good. The only other thing for me is the eyes...to me they need a reflection or catchlight to make them more alive. I still dig the image alot though.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hi Daniel! And thank you-I know exactly what you mean regarding feet and eyes. And especially the eyes-I already saw they were a little dull as I was busy processing. They were too dark, and any attempt to extract detail there by various means brought the same results. The reflection just wasn't there and I decided not to create it artificially. The more I look at this image, the more it seems somewhat "washed out". I wish I had Arash's light here, that golden soft light one witnesses before dusk. Perhaps I will find a way to improve this, every comment counts and I am very kin to go back to the RAW image and experiment until I get it right. I am open to any suggestions. Your comments show that you have taken the time to view this carefully, as you have touched precisely on these issues that bother me-I really appreciate your time and critique, your time is not wasted-I shall go back to image and see what I can fix

Warmest regards,