Spoonbill Topside

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm
1/2500 F/8 Matrix Metering EV -1/3 ISO 280 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017
Cropped for composition and presentation

[arash_hazeghi]

love the topside view and the reds of the spoonie Head looks a bit OOF to my eye, looks like the focus grabbed the ear wing. Wish he hadn't passed you slightly...

TFS

[John Mack]

Agree about the focus, nice flight pose on the bird though.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Arash and John, thank you for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.

Arash, my mistake in post processing by rotating the bird from the original orientation made it appear that it had passed me. The bird was circling to land, turning into the wind on a downward angle. Originally I did not like the orientation of the bird so I rotated it to a more normal flying orientation. Now I know I should have left it alone. Lesson learned. The active focus point was on the birds shoulder and wing at the base of the neck, so pretty much the same plane as the head. I did another TIFF with the bird in the original orientation and sharpened the image again. Here is a repost.

[Tim Foltz]

Joseph, As far as the comp goes I like the original one better. Beautiful colors.

-Tim