Yawning Black-crowned Night-heron Chick

[Norm Dulak]

Nikon D200; Sigma 300-800 mm f/5.6 lens at 800 mm
1/180 sec at f/9.0; ISO 400; -0.33 EV

I've cropped in on this bird a bit because I find it fascinating. The image as originally captured shows some partially oof surrounding foliage that I think serves to frame the image but might not be appreciated by everyone. As always, any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Norm You did capture a great look here

Would brighten the face which might make it pop form the bg As presented is sort of blending in. Not sure what is to the right of the bird or if you could have moved but might have tried for a clean bg if possible btw when working on the face also work on the eye ... will make a difference !!! Excellent !!!!

[Norm Dulak]

Great comments Al. Thanks. I'll work on it.

[Arthur Morris]

I like the COMP and the squawk. There is lots of noise in the dark areas; was the image originally underexposed? flash would have really helped this image. As Alfred noted, the middle tones as presented are still way too fdark.

[Norm Dulak]

Art:

The brightness of the sky while avoiding blowing the highlights in the bird gave me problems in setting exposure. But your comments here in particular and the availability of this forum that you have provided in general are excellent learning experiences. And instructive comments you made when we met at Canopy Lodge in Panama last year were also extremely helpful.

[Arthur Morris]

I am confused a bit by your exposure explanation. In situations like this you need to expose for the bird and blow the highlights in the sky else you end up with noise, too low contrast, and a too dark subject as you did here. Thanks for your kind words.

[Norm Dulak]

Thanks Art, you're absolutely right. I'll handle this kind of situation better in the future, based upon what I've learned here.

[Jim Poor]

Whoa! Reminds me of one of my old Russian teachers. In addition to what has been mentioned, I might take after the eye with Artie's techniques for bringing out the best in an eye-ball.

[Norm Dulak]

Jim:

I hope that Russian teacher wasn't preparing to go to sleep as this chick was. The image really does capture the peak of a yawn, and I have 10-12 frames of that yawn from start to finish. As for fixing the eye, I'll try to make it stand out by applying those techniques. They've worked very well in other cases.