Cape Vulture coming in to land

[Chris van Rooyen]

This is another image from the Giant's Castle bird hide, taken nine years ago. The situation was challenging in that the mountainside in the background was in deep shade and recently burnt, with some green starting to re-appear, and the cream-coloured bird in the sun, making for quite a dramatic combination in IMO. This bird was coming in to land at the feeding spot where bones and meat are put out to draw the birds. I deliberately went for a natural look, resisting the temptation to over saturate. Very slight crop, processed in LR and PS CC, noise removal with Neat Image.

Camera Model: NIKON D3S
Date/Time: 2010:10:03 09:48:06
Shutter speed: 1/2000 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure compensation: -1/3
ISO: 800
Focal length: 600mm

[dankearl]

Cool wicked pose...the bird is very sharp...
You have some odd BG colors and posterization.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Cool wicked pose...the bird is very sharp...
You have some odd BG colors and posterization.

Hi Dan, thanks for the comments! Could you be more specific about the postirization and odd BG colours?

[Ian McLachlan]

I like this background a lot, the contrast with the great lighter coloured wing span seems perfect to me. The only problem with this wonderful bird seems to be how the emphasis on that amazing head and the eyes almost always get lost a bit in head on shots.Still spectacular.

[greg cowle]

Cool bird. Agree you have to look to find the head, but you have a great view of the wings in landing mode. Background is great.

[John Mack]

The incoming pose on this bird is nice. Like the dark background with bird in full sun light.

[Dorian Anderson]

Pose and underwing details are great, as it softly graded BG. Eye contact is great, but I wish the head was featured a bit more (i.e not against the body). Minor critique though, a very strong frame!

[Arthur Morris]

Spectacular and sharp. Love the BKGR but for the few white spots and streaks lower right. Easy to smooth those out if you wish. Best case for the head would have been to have it centered between the legs. But still spectacular.

with love, artie

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks everyone for the comments - noted!

[arash_hazeghi]

love the landing pose and the light, all details covered above

TFS