I was hoping to get back to Bosque this winter but our schedules aren't going to work for it. I was reviewing some old images and found this one from 2010 that I rather like. The equipment was old and I could probably get a little better IQ today. Canon 5D2, 300mm f/2.8 IS + 1.4X TC II. ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/3000 sec. First light at dawn. Don't remember if I was on a tripod or handholding, but I do remember I was freezing to death.
Just very basic LR adjustments (revisited with the latest version) and into PS for some extremely slight BG retouching -- removal of about two OOF weeds. Did a Nik Detail Extractor on the head, which was tonally a little flat, and a touch of local contrast on the near wing. It's cropped to 40% of the full frame. I would have preferred more pixels on the subject.
This is really nice Diane! I agree that in a perfect world the near wing would be a bit lower but man the light and details are killer. One of the better sandhill shots I have seen in a while. Well done
Come join me for a Custom Raptor Workshop starting this November 2019- January 2020.
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Thanks everyone! I'm honored! For better wing positions, I'm looking forward to 12 FPS or whatever the new 1DX II will bring. When it came out I decided the 5D3 would be good enough for my needs, then of course I got interested in things it didn't do well enough. Time to fix that.
Beautiful, Diane! I really wish to go to Bosque some day and it's probably not gonna be this year. So looking at these pictures make me wanna go even more!
Thanks, everyone! Adhika, I saw on artie's blog the other day that the numbers are way down this year. I don't remember if it was equally low for Sandhills and geese. He has an excellent PDF guide to shooting there and posts updates on his blog during his workshops there.