Million Dollar Bird Portrait

[Loi Nguyen]

This is a near full frame portrait of a wild California Condor (Sub Adult). It costs about US $1 million to keep one of these birds alive in the wild. The US Fish and Wildlife Services needs to monitor the condor population daily and every 6 months or so trap them to monitor their health and if necessary treat them for lead poisoning due to ingesting lead fragments in a carcass. California has passed a ban on the use of lead ammunition, but it won't go into effect until 2019.

We won a live auction bid for a private tour of Tejon Ranch in Southern California and found a flock of 9. They were totally undisturbed by our presence.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III = 700mm
1/800
f9
ISO-800
Handheld

Cropped slightly top and a sliver from the left.

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[Diane Miller]

Fantastic! I've never seen such detail of the head. Great work!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, a face only a mother could love perhaps?.

You have the detail and I quite like the almost side on profile, I wonder if not having feathers around the neck is for the same reason vultures don't?

The blue in the feather edges I think has come from pushing the Blue, I don't think it's any CA, did you tweak it? Certainly dropping it helps tremendously, but tricky when you get to the sky. Adding either a Luminosity layer really bumps up the face, neck etc nicely with more depth & detail helping the light, likewise adding some selective colour for the blacks & neutral, the body feathers then have a nice richness to them then. Personally I might add another round of USM selectively, you will see things just then 'pop' a bit more IMHO.

TFS
Steve

[Richard Flack]

Awesome portrait. Nice detail and thanks for the accompanying story!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Wonderful image Loi. I have only seen films of them flying, not this close and personal. Certainly a beautiful part of nature. I think every penny spent saving them it well spent. Thanks for sharing.

[John Robinson]

WOW - Thats some head to wake up with in a morning !.
Great close up and detail there.
JohnR

[Randy Stout]

Loi:

Thanks for the image and the story behind it.

My second thought upon seeing the image was, a bit too bright, could use a bit toning down, and Steve's suggestions should work well. My first thought was how unbeautiful he is. !

Wonderful opportunity.

Cheers

Randy

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful detail and an incredible bird! I could see taking the brightness down a bit.

[John Rowell]

Super portrait shot, the condor looks great against the lighter background. You were really lucky to get this private tour and it paid off well.

[Grace Scalzo]

Fantastic opportunity well used. Interesting bird and information. I find myself wondering what that yellow thing in his head is?

[Loi Nguyen]

'pop'[/I] a bit more IMHO.

TFS
Steve

Steve, thank for making very good suggestions on reducing the Blue around the feather edges and the head. No I didn't push the Blue, but now that you mentioned it, I saw it. So reducing it via Hue/Sat selectively around the feather edges, head, and sky.

Yes, California Condor is vulture, so no feathers around the neck.

also used Selective color to darken the blob on the LHS on the feathers. The reason I cropped at all is due to this brighter blob. Now that I said it, I decided to rework the image to put back a sliver at the bottom and left that I took off. So now it is almost FF, except for taking a sliver off the top.

I left the colors on the neck the same. This is a sub-adult, so his head is just starting to change colors from back/grey to red. The adult head is very bright red.

Also added a luminosity mask.

Randy and Doug, I reduced the exposure a tad here in the RP.

Grace, thank you for asking regarding the yellow hole on his head. That is his ear! Pretty weird, eh?

Thank you again everyone, there are only about 400 birds in the wild and they are critically endangered. For 2 years, I have been trying to get a good picture of one, I think this is the first decent picture that I have had of this species.

Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, i like this, it has a bit more 'guts' to it (just trying to keep within the subject) , how do you feel, you know how I work, so it would be good to know if it has moved it along or...?

[gail bisson]

This is a special shot Loi and I can see why you like it!
The feathers around the neck look like a " feather boa" ( scarf with feathers that ladies used to wear!)
I like your repost but thought the OP was excellent as well.
I would rework your cloning/PP work above the birds' right shoulder as I can see the demarcation quite clearly. Easy fix.
I think this is one of your best and most interesting shots.
Congrats,
gail

[Loi Nguyen]

This is a special shot Loi and I can see why you like it!

I would rework your cloning/PP work above the birds' right shoulder as I can see the demarcation quite clearly. Easy fix.

gail

Gail, the blob above the bird right shoulder is something in the Bg that has a darker streak. I could have cloned it out and made it clean, but this is a special shot for me, so I decided not to do any cloning. I tried to reduce contrast to blend the blob in, but didn't do a good job. Will try again. Thank you for your comments. Loi

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Loi, great portrait with loads of detail ,OP is working better and took it up a notch .I do find your PP skills are becoming better and better , a learning curve is going its way ……...

TFS Andreas

[Arthur Morris]

What a puss on that bird! Love the fine detail and everything else.

[Cal Walters]

Loi, Great shot and thanks for sharing - brought back lots of memories. My father was the president at Tejon Ranch in the late 70's through mid 80's. Lots of fond memories on the place including seeing the condors before they were all trapped.

[Loi Nguyen]

Loi, Great shot and thanks for sharing - brought back lots of memories. My father was the president at Tejon Ranch in the late 70's through mid 80's. Lots of fond memories on the place including seeing the condors before they were all trapped.

Hi Carl, you were lucky to see the last of the truly wild condors!!! Hopefully some day these birds can roam not only a Tejon Ranch but all over the sky of California, Utah, and Arizonia and not being continuously exposed to lead fragments in the carcass they eat. By 2019, all lead amunnition will be banned in California. Loi