Crimson Rosella (immature)

[Glenn Pure]

Another very common bird around home. The olive green feathers around the nape and elsewhere are typical of an immature bird. This one was photographed in a reserve a short walk from home. It was waiting in a low bush for a chance to have a drink in the puddle. I have lifted the eye a little and removed an oof branch behind the bird. Crop is just over a third of the frame area.


Technical: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (Mark I) at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/800 sec, f7.1, ISO 1600. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Very light NR applied to birds in focus and stronger NR to background. Sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool) after final size reduction.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Glenn, your Australian birds are certainly colourful, and I like the various colours on this species. Great eye, and the red plumage stands out well against your lighter BG.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Those are some vivid reds! Well balanced comp and good details.

[gail bisson]

I fell in love with these birds when I lived in Melbourne. Your image brings back wonderful memories.
Wonderful detail and IQ. Good comp.
I find the BG a bit bright and would try a version with the brightness dialed back slightly.
Gail

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you Stu, Daniel and Gail. I will try a darker background, Gail, and repost once I've reworked.

I fell in love with these birds when I lived in Melbourne. Your image brings back wonderful memories.

A surprise to know you spent some time in 'Oz', Gail. When were you here? Were you an active bird photographer then? There are certainly some superb locations close to Melbourne, especially the huge Western Treatment Plant which is an internationally recognised and critical wetland habitat even though it is Melbourne's sewage treatment facility. Just this year past, the WTP saw the release of some captive-bred Orange-bellied Parrots which are critically endangered. There are fewer than 50 left:
http://birdlife.org.au/projects/oran...arrot-recovery

[Glenn Pure]

Gail, here it is with a little more tone in the background...

[gail bisson]

I really like your repost Glenn. A +!
I was not a photographer when I lived in Melbourne in 1994 and 1995. Hubby was there doing a fellowship at the Alfred Hospital in surgical oncology and we had 2 small kids.
I also did my emergency medicine rotation in Melbourne way back in 1983 for 2 months. I loved all the birds and we had 2 pink galahs that lived in our backyard. How I wish I had been into photography back then!!
Gail

[Glenn Conlan]

Repost is better, great job on the reddish orange colors

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks Gail and Glenn. Your comments are very helpful and will help on my path to improvement.

I really like your repost Glenn. A +!
I was not a photographer when I lived in Melbourne in 1994 and 1995. Hubby was there doing a fellowship at the Alfred Hospital in surgical oncology and we had 2 small kids.
I also did my emergency medicine rotation in Melbourne way back in 1983 for 2 months. I loved all the birds and we had 2 pink galahs that lived in our backyard. How I wish I had been into photography back then!!
Gail

Thanks for those details Gail. Perhaps just as well you weren't a bird photographer back then - pre digital. I always had a latent interest in bird photography during my 'film' days but it was orders of magnitude more difficult and frustrating. DSLRs have turned a near-impossible dream into reality when it comes to bird and wildlife photography. I am ever so grateful I can now indulge my interest in this area.

By coincidence, I was in the US while you were doing your emergency medicine in Melbourne! I spent two years as a postdoc at Stanford in SF bay area in 1982 and 1983. I'm a molecular biologist although I left the lab in the mid 80s for a different career. I met a few medicos in training while at the Medical School at Stanford. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of birds from that time in Palo Alto although I was still a keen film photographer and remember using the Stanford Uni Photographic Club's darkroom a number of times, inspired by Ansel Adams and his fabulous landscapes. But sorry to drift off-topic here...