Scarlet Macaw

[Doug Brown]

I recently returned from my annual Costa Rica workshop, and both Dave Salem and Glenn Conlan joined me and Greg Basco this year. We had a really good group of participants and the photo opportunities were excellent. Photographing wild Macaws is always a workshop highlight, and this year was no exception. Dave recently posted a great Scarlet Macaw frame, and I thought I'd post one as well. My new Nikon gear performed flawlessly in Costa Rica, and it really excelled at capturing Macaws in flight. Looking forward to doing my first Ecuador workshop with Greg next year!

Nikon D5, 200-500mm @ 420mm, f/5.6, 1/1250, ISO 3200, manual exposure, hand held

[Doug Brown]

Here's a standard resolution version.

[Jay Ing]

Hi Doug,

Good to see you posting. I guess you've been busy with your tour groups... Lucky you. As always great work. Remember your killer Macaw from from last year... that was amazing. This one is very nice as well. Glad you're liking your "Dark Side" gear. Of course the D5 is killer... how do you find the focus speed of the 200-500. I know it holds acquisition well but what about initial AF lock? Thanks for posting.

[Alex Becker]

You did great with these guys. I love the rain drops falling here. IQ is great. This one looks like it was flying pretty close to the ground. Glad the Nikon gear is working out. Was this using Group AF? TFS

[Simon Davis]

Looks good to me if a little noisy, guess not much you could do about that though looking at the settings.

[Doug Brown]

Hi Doug,

Good to see you posting. I guess you've been busy with your tour groups... Lucky you. As always great work. Remember your killer Macaw from from last year... that was amazing. This one is very nice as well. Glad you're liking your "Dark Side" gear. Of course the D5 is killer... how do you find the focus speed of the 200-500. I know it holds acquisition well but what about initial AF lock? Thanks for posting.

Hi Jay. Thanks for your comments. While the 200-500 doesn't acquire focus as fast as an f/4 prime, it feels plenty fast. I'm very impressed with it, both from an AF and an image quality standpoint.

[Doug Brown]

You did great with these guys. I love the rain drops falling here. IQ is great. This one looks like it was flying pretty close to the ground. Glad the Nikon gear is working out. Was this using Group AF? TFS

Hi Alex. This was shot with Group AF. I find Group AF to be amazing for BIF in pretty much all shooting situations that I've encountered so far.

[Isaac Grant]

Very nice Doug. Beautiful wing position and a perfect head turn.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Doug, excellent flying pose with the full downstroke of the wings and the trailing tail. With this pose, one can see all the colours these guys have to offer, and you nailed the slight head turn. Nice clean BG, and I like the inclusion of the grasses below.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Doug! love the wing position and the colors!

TFS

[William Dickson]

Excellent. I think the grasses below, really makes this image different. Great flight pose, IQ and colours on the bird. Love the HA. Perfect BG colours for this bird. Nice work.

Will

[David Salem]

This one looks fantastic Doug. Beautiful colors and details and I love the pose with the wing cupped and the head highlighted within it. Funny I wound up with quite a few frames with the same pose. Must be the way they fly. I personally would have removed the grass below and kept it all the same as the background.
Once again, I had a great time and I'm looking forward to both of us posting more images from the trip.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the comments everyone!