Little Corellas

[Glennie Passier]

The image was taken late on a windy, overcast afternoon near Birdsville on the edge of the Simpson Desert. The waterhole attracts many, many, noisy, destructive corellas.
I don't mind the OOF birds in the BG, but can see that the brightness of them might draw your attention from the three main birds. There were so many birds at the waterhole it was almost impossible to get a shot without the BG birds.
The birds do naturally have a pinkish tinge from the red desert sand.

I have sharpened, cloned out a stick, desaturated the OOF BG birds, cropped, noise reduction.

Any C&C is most welcome.

EF100-400 f4.5-5.6L IS USM Focal Length @350mm
1/1000@f5.6
ISO 100
Spot metering
Hand held

[Diane Miller]

Very nice! Sharp, good exposure. color and tonal detail. Nice poses, too. I like the perch and the OOF grasses give a base to the image. I don't mind the BG birds but wonder if you might have been on burst mode and gotten the one just landing without its wings being so prominent.

What camera?

[Glennie Passier]

Thank you Diane. I've had a look through and there is only one other where there is no outstretched wings...but unfortunately, I don't believe the poses are as good as the one posted and the foreground bird is a bit soft. I will do a bit of work on it to see what I can get out of it.

Using Canon 5D Mk II

Glennie

[Warren Spreng]

Lovely, and the colors are terrific. I agree the two OOF tend to pull your eye to them but I don't find it distracting as my eye then goes back to the main subjects, I think those two add a bit of interest to the overall shot.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Giennie, Lovely birds as far as the OOF BG birds at least for this frame if you would have moved to your right you would have eliminated the BG birds also if you had lowered you shooting angle making the sky your BG instead of the water hole you would have to deal only with the birds flying in rather then the ones in the water which might have given you more opportunities for clean BG this is of course assuming you could change your shooting angle. Controlling the BG is as important as every other decision you make regarding the composition of the image if I can not get a good BG I will either move on or just enjoy the show in front of me with pushing the shutter.

[Glennie Passier]

Thank you Don and Warren.

Don, you are absolutely correct. I could have moved. The birds were a little fractious and I didn't want to scare them away by moving too much. Finding water in the Outback of Australia is a life or death challenge everyday. But I certainly could have sat on my haunches. Sometimes I do like to sit and watch without pushing the shutter. You can miss a lot when you've got your eye wedged in the eyepiece.