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Thread: New Zealand Bellbird on a flax flower

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    Default New Zealand Bellbird on a flax flower

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    The Bellbird (Korimako) is an endemic species described as being the cornerstone of the New Zealand dawn chorus with it's bell-like song - 'a series of loud, clear, liquid, ringing notes interspersed with grunts and wheezes'. It is a 'Honeyeater' and can be commonly sighted taking nectar from the generous flowers of the endemic New Zealand swamp flax ('harakeke' in Maori).
    I was pleased to catch this male (slightly purplish head) feeding in the relative open in an area of flax on a dull afternoon with a few tiny raindrops.
    The bird would move rapidly from stem to stem, reaching deep into each flower for a sip of nectar. I would have preferred to have more of the bird's tail in the open, but chose this image from the series as it showed a characteristic posture of the bird and the beautiful architectural shape of the stem and flowers.

    Canon EOS 1DX; EF200-400mm at 400mm; hand-held
    1/800 sec at f/4, ISO 1600

    Converted in DPP4. PP in PS CC included adding some contrast and saturation to the flowers which were partly obscured by moving leaves; a touch of Curves and sharpening with Smart Sharpen in PS CC. Cropped to provide best view of bird and flower.

    Comments and suggestions are much appreciated.

    Gerald

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    The high key treatment works well here. Like the diagonal the perch creates. Maybe up the exposure a tad.

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    Composition is nice, but agree with John that the exposure on the subject is under by a bit.

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    BPN Member William Dickson's Avatar
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    Very nice bird and perch....which I think look a tad dark. Definitely worth looking at the processing again, as I really like the frame.

    Will

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    Thanks for the feedback. I understand your comment about upping the exposure, but having looked at this and other Bellbird images, I think that it is about right. The thing that threw me at first was especially the head - but the bird is a very drab olive colour and then on the male, the neck and head go to an even more drab, dull chocolate to purple. When I look at it's eye and bill, I think the exposure isn't as far of as I initially thought as did you.

    Gerald

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