Eastern Spinebill at the pool

[Ian Wilson]

This is a more typical capture of an Eastern Spinebill coming up from a dive at my garden pool. I have a background of shrubs in dappled shade in which the birds get 'lost' so I have used sail canvas to produce the beige coloured artificial background in this image.

Canon 5DIII + 300 mm f/2.8L II + 1.4x III extender, three 600EX-RT flashes, RS-80N3 remote shutter release, Gitzo 3632LS tripod, Kirkphoto King Cobra gimbal, sail canvas background.

Pre-set manual focus, manual camera settings, f/13, 1/200 sec, ISO 125, 1/8 flash power all units.

Processed in DPP4: crop, adjust brightness (-0.17), gamma (2.96, -0.16, -0.83), shadow (+1.8), saturation (1.0), sharpness (3), RAW-TIFF.
PS Elements: select bird, surface blur to reduce file size, remove two flash highlights from bird's eye, downsize, sharpen bird, TIFF-JPEG.

Thanks for looking, critical feedback welcome.

Ian

[christopher galeski]

very nice image,your best so far of this bird in my opinion,good detail,nice light,well done.

[mohammad reza shahab]

excellent pose and water Splashing.very good IQ & Great details.

[Richard Flack]

Cracker action shot Ian. Super sharp and lovely detail. The eye is awesome. Well done!

[Shawn Zierman]

A joy to look at. Technically so good,...sharp details, great flight pose with once again excellent head angle and facial expression. Keep em coming! These are like owl images, or frankly all good images of any avian subject....There will never be enough imo.

[Karl Egressy]

Great work with the setup and execution and end result is striking, Ian.

[William Dickson]

Youve done it again Ian. What a lovely image

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Ian, great upward launch, and another fine use of multiple flash. I mentioned it on your previous post of this fellow, they have lovely eyes.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Fantastic image Bill!
You got the perfet timing and the bird rewarded you with a nice eye contact, wing position and lots of action!

[keith mitchell]

Have tried to photograph these birds on my trips to Australia, wish I could have come home with an image like this,Ian these shots you are posting are excellent.

Keith.

[Daniel Cadieux]

More great use of this excellent technique (both in-camera and actual setup). My favorite from your series thus far featuring a dynamic pose with perfect head and body angle, appealing colours, and lots of good water drop action.

[Binu John]

Stunning shot, Ian! This is the best pose in the series you've posted so far! Love the pose, BG, open beak and the water droplets. Very well done!

[David Salem]

Wow!! This is awesome. Great capture in all regards. Killer detail. Did I say, Wow!!

[Satish Ranadive]

Fully action packed image in beautiful settings.
Love the frame.

Regards,
Satish.

[Ian Wilson]

Thanks everyone for your kind feedback on this image. Regards, Ian.