Saddle-billed Stork (female)

[Glenn Pure]

This female (yellow eye indicates) has just caught a tiny snack. The male was nearby. Photographed from safari vehicle in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Dark areas on bird lifted and light areas toned down a touch. Crop is about a third of the frame area. Thanks for taking a look and for any comments you may have.

Technical: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (Mark II) at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/1250 sec, f7.1, ISO 640. 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, remove Gaussian blur; 0.5 pixels @ 50%) after final size reduction.

[Tim Foltz]

Glenn, sweet shot of this colorful bird, nice angle and comp. I really like the environment and the prey is an added bonus.

-Tim

[Mike Singh]

Waw Glenn, impressive colours on the Stork. I like the composition and the snack in the beak. The Stork does stand out from the background. I think the head angle is good (i am still learning about HAs). Maybe crop about half the foreground out?
Mike

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Glenn, yep the female is the more colourful due to her yellow eye. Well timed to capture the feeding behaviour, and I like the drooling water as she lifts her head out the water. I'm feeling as if this was taken in overcast conditions, as I would have expected to see more iridescence on her wing, and the grasses in the BG much warmer in colour.

[Daniel Cadieux]

You did well considering the limitations of being in the vehicle. Nice colours, habitat, feeding behaviour.

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you for your comments Tim, Mike, Stu and Daniel - very helpful to get a different perspective. I think a touch off the bottom of this frame could help, as you suggested Mike. I'll have a play with it.

I'm feeling as if this was taken in overcast conditions, as I would have expected to see more iridescence on her wing, and the grasses in the BG much warmer in colour.

Thanks Stu but I don't remember much iridescence even though I know it can be apparent on these birds. For other birds with a similar look like Glossy Ibis, I find the iridesence is more obvious with highly directional light (sun is out) but you have to be at the right angle to see it intensely. So unsure why you expected to see more in cloudy conditions? As for the colour, I have aimed to keep this as neutral as possible. I set the WB to the 'Cloudy' preset in DPP and have not done any fine adjustment of that. To me, the white on the bird looks fairly neutral which was my aim. I may have another look at this though and see if some fine adjustment to the colour will give a better result and repost I'm happy with it.

[David Seymour]

Hi Glenn, I really like this one. The bird is big enough in the frame to capture its characteristics very well, but the frame also has strong elements of natural environment and bird behaviour. For me, the combination of all three factors always makes for a great image. Considering you've only been doing this since 2013, I reckon you're showing sure signs of a natural aptitude!
Cheers, David

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks David - didn't realise you were active over here too! Hopefully I'll be able to learn lots from the excellent photographers and helpful people on BPN. I'm away for much of the coming week though, so until then...

[dankearl]

What a great looking bird?
Maybe a tad off the top would lower the POV a bit?