Swamp King

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

The Swamp Harrier is one of the shyest raptors Downunder. Very difficult to get photos of due to their extreme avoidance of humans. I spent a good half a day up to my knees in a swamp in full camo last weekend to try to capture one in flight.
For the first three and a half hours, thick fog blanketed the plains. As the sun rose I was able to find a good position. This female surprised me with a close fly-by even though she was aware of me standing under a tree as I was photographing some spoonbills nearby.
Normally at the sound of the shutter they do a 180 and go the other way. She carried on though.
I want to get a photo of one hunting over the reed beds, which is gonna come sooner rather than later! :)

5D3, 500/4L IS + 1.4x, ISO800, manual mode, f/8, 1/2000th

[keith mitchell]

It's nice when these sort of things happen Akos ,bird looks very well exposed against that bright OZ sunshine sky, lots of detail and all looks sharp, hope your reed bed shot comes off, thanks for giving us a look.

Keith.

[adrian dancy]

Excellent flight image and I wish you luck with future attempts at this fine looking bird.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Akos, you do get good light.

Like the flight shot, nice raptor too. I might suggest a little less on the LHS and a hint more on the right, more to fly into, WDYT????

I would check your settings for web output, as the image isn't carrying any embedded profile i.e. sRGB and so it may not be portraying the image to it's full potential, it's invariably an uncheck box. Just moving the Tint slider to the left (say -20 to --25 figures purely personal choice) provides a cleaner appearance, less Magenta both to the subject & sky, you could then add some yellow Sat too, just a thought.

Nice one.

TFS
Steve

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Thank you very much for looking.
Appreciate the suggestions Steve!
Cheers mate

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice details, shooting angle is a bit steep, I wish the bird was a bit lower in the sky and that we could see the feet. beak has merged with the far wing but that's a minor point

TFS