Bonxy up close and personal

[shane shacaluga]

Last year I went to a small island between Scotland and the Shetlands called Fair Isle

The place is paradise for seabird and it is a nesting place for Great Skuas called Bonxy's for some reason

At the top of a hill i found a few pairs who immediately took off when they saw me

I managed to catch this one quite nicely. The wing position wasnt that great so tried a closeup. Its not usual to see one of these with greenery as a BG

D800e

300f4 + 1.7x TC
f6.7
1/1600
ISO 800

For some reason the original raw has a very strong green cast. I had to really play around with the levels to try and even it out and not sure if I succeeded

Cropped for composition, Cloned out a white sort of barrier at top right of the image behind the bird

Surface blur on the BG and selective sharpening on subject. Cleaned a couple of white spots on the beak too

Thanks for viewing and commenting

[Daniel Cadieux]

The crop works for me, and you have a sweet BG. Nice and sharp, but just on the verge of losing too much detail due perhaps to the crop. Still good though. Was the bird flying relatively low to grass? Sometimes it's surprising how much of a cast this can cause...

[Grace Scalzo]

You certainly made this work, although the IQ is beginning to suffer. At this size though, it works. I personally would dodge the brightness of the eye just to give it a bit more life. Nice species.

[David Salem]

Nice close-up flight frame and I like the background. I agree with the others that the IQ is suffering. Maybe a bit more sharpening will help. Well done

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks for the comments!

Daniel this was flying just over a meter above the grass. I was standing up and it was below camera level.

Will try a slightly looser crop or a bit more sharpening see what comes up best. I am always worried about oversharpening so maybe I didnt do enough

By dodging you mean making the eye a bit brighter right Grace?

Again thanks a lot for your advice and critiques

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Shane, nice one and I too like the tight crop, but wonder if you reduce the Blue and go more towards a warmer WB. I also just added a few points in the Blacks & Neutrals in Selective Colour and applied a bit more USM to the eye & beak, WDYT?

BTW was this at Hermeness, great location, but not ideal for those who don't walk too far as it is a bit of a yomp, especially if you go further afield once you hit the cliffs.

TFS
Steve

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks Steve

This was actually on Fair Isle itself. I believe Hermaness is at the north of the Shetlands

RP looks good. The original frame is a lot greener than that still so I guess i overdid it

Sharpening and black points have boosted this image nicely

As usual thanks for your helpful hints

[Steve Kaluski]

No problem.

Yep Hermaness is about as far north as you can get, but well worth it. As I said, it is a bit of a yomp, but you could, on a good day, be there for the whole day if you have your walking legs on.