High-key Jabiru Yoga

[Bill Dix]

Tree pose. Don't know if this one works. The Jabiru's completely naked black head and neck make it difficult to show detail, and by the time we spotted this guy it was approaching mid-day in hazy-bright conditions. But I liked the pose and loved getting a view of this massive stork. Full-height cropped from horizontal; removed a number of branches.

D7200, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 800, 1/2000s @ f/7.1 manual, monopod from skiff.

[Diane Miller]

Good work with that much telephoto from a skiff! It feels crowded on the right, for me, but a very interesting bird and pose. For my taste, taking a bit off the top would better balance the relative heaviness of the large branch at the bottom.

[Bill Nuttall]

Interesting image and unusual

It is good and different …. I can see what you are aiming for

I just feel that you are not quite there and you need to do a little more work in pp on the blacks and the whites to make it "pop" and as said the crop

[Don Lacy]

Hi Bill, I think the image really needs a catchlight in the eye to make it work and a bit more tonal separation of the subject from the BG.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks guys and gals. I appreciate the various suggestions. Here are two reposts.

Diane, I added a sliver to the right, and took off about the same amount from the top.

Bill, I made a few minor adjustments to Levels. I didn't want the black to be black, but tried to preserve the tiny bit of detail that was there. I also tried to mitigate the shadow across the bird.

Don, I brightened the existing catchlight just a bit. The nature of the ambient light didn't provide much of a catchlight. I'm not sure what you had in mind about more tonal separation. It's a white bird against a white background. I did try a version that adds a bit of a tint to the BG, but it defeats the idea of high-key. I prefer the version reposted here without the tint. The following frame adds a tint.

What do you think?

[Bill Dix]

Here's the version with the BG tint.