Coot in a hurry

[Mike Poole]

Not too sure what this coot was after - there was no food the way he was going and no other coots to challenge, but he suddenly took off for a reason I'll never know.

Canon 7d2
500mm f4 is
ISO 640
1/1000th f5

full frame on the sides, a little taken off top and bottom for comp.

Mike

[William Dickson]

I'm glad he took off Mike, because you captured it perfectly. Lovely control of the blacks and great POV. I love the raised foot.

Will

[Randy Stout]

Mike:

There is a reason they call them "bird brains", not always predictable behaviour by our standards!

Agree with William, very nicely captured, with nice blacks, excellent shooting angling, that raised foot and interesting, but not distracting
foreground.

The whites on the crown might be toned down a bit. I generally shoot for the 230s as a target on whites for my images. I have always found coots particularly challenging in regards to dynamic range, and that is saying something coming from a guy who shoots loons, a lot!


Cheers

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

Pretty neat floor with that short vegetation. Is that frost coating them? Yes, good job with the blacks and most of the whites, with the forehead and upper mandible indeed being hot - you'll likely need to mostly tame those during raw conversion and then perhaps tweaked in PS. I like the vertical composition and the low angle.

[Arthur Morris]

I love the raised foot, the low angle, and the ground cover. But with the low angle the bird's head merging with the dark is a problem for both me an the success of the image. And yes, the bill looks pretty much toasted. Randy, where did you learn that stuff about RGB values in the 230s? :) a

ps: the pupil not being centered is also distracting (but not your fault) :).

[christopher galeski]

very nice Mike,love the raised foot,nice POV,good detail in the blacks,agree with others comments on the whites on the upper mandible and forhead,TFS.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Interesting image, I love the raised foot. Others more experienced that I have commented on the technical aspects. Thank you for sharing, Mike.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mike, great low perspective, and I like the raised foot. Well exposed on the darker plumage, and agree, not easy to nail the exposure on their beaks. Lovely red eye.

[dankearl]

I just love the feet......

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Mike, great low perspective, and I like the raised foot. Well exposed on the darker plumage, and agree, not easy to nail the exposure on their beaks. Lovely red eye.

Hi Stu, With all due respect I must disagree with the "not easy" comment. Just work in Manual mode and make a test exposure--if the beak has blinkies go darker until they are barely any blinkies left. Once you get there lots can be done during the RAW conversion and in post-processing. a

[Mike Poole]

Hi Stu, With all due respect I must disagree with the "not easy" comment. Just work in Manual mode and make a test exposure--if the beak has blinkies go darker until they are barely any blinkies left. Once you get there lots can be done during the RAW conversion and in post-processing. a

Thanks for stopping by Artie, a quick opinion then if you don't mind.

As I see it, in this scenario (black bird, with a notoriously shiny white mantle heading towards the sun) I had a couple of options, what would you have done?

1) Lower the exposure to get the whites right and bring up the blacks in PP

2) Go somewhere in between, retain as much detail in the blacks without having to push the darks too much, and do some extra work in PP with the beak

3) Forsee there is no perfect solution, walk away and look for another subject

regards

Mike

[Arthur Morris]

The very best that you can do is aim for a very few blinkies on the bill. This will maximize detail in the dark areas. But you simply cannot go around toasting significant areas of bright WHITEs.... Good photographs of coots in the sun are possible as there is lots we can do to reveal detail in both the WHITEs and the BLACKs. I will try to get a really sweet one from San Diego processed and use it in a blog post linking to this post :)

later and love, artie

ps: after another look at your image do understand that getting right on sun angle with your shadow pointed right at a coot will help exacerbate your exposure problems. Your coot is sidelit from our right.

[Mike Poole]

The very best that you can do is aim for a very few blinkies on the bill. This will maximize detail in the dark areas. But you simply cannot go around toasting significant areas of bright WHITEs.... Good photographs of coots in the sun are possible as there is lots we can do to reveal detail in both the WHITEs and the BLACKs. I will try to get a really sweet one from San Diego processed and use it in a blog post linking to this post :)

later and love, artie

ps: after another look at your image do understand that getting right on sun angle with your shadow pointed right at a coot will help exacerbate your exposure problems. Your coot is sidelit from our right.

Thanks for the input - much appreciated.

Mike