African openbill silhouette

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

A silhouette of three openbill storks taken in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. Taken soon before (an awesome) sunset. In post, boosted saturation and lowered the darks a bit, cropped to pnao.

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 500mm f/4 + 1.4 TC
Specs: 1/2500 f/5.6 ISO 800

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[Moe Richard]

Very pleasing progression of pose and wing positions with nice silhouette effect, color, and environment. Although this is a nice composition, I might want to see a little less orange saturation just to compare.

[annmpacheco]

Hi Alex, sweet colors, I'd suggest a tighter crop and less canvas on bottom. I like the varying positions..,TFS

[gail bisson]

The best part of this image is the fact that the silhouettes allow the viewer to see why this bird is called "openbill stork".
If you are not anti-cloning I could see a version with the black bit of vegetation in the water to the left of lead bird removed.
The three positions are really cool and it almost looks like a composite of the stork taking off.
I wish that the lead stork was flying more towards us but I am being really picky here.
I would love to have this in my files.

[Bill Dix]

A beautiful image with wonderful mood. Great progression. I could also see a more pano crop with a bit off the bottom, but love it just as posted.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Love everything about this capture, Alex. Wonderful transition in the background from rich orange to less saturated distance.


Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[dankearl]

I would remove the left side vegetation in a heartbeat but everything else is
just superb..the 3 poses, the open bill and the colors are excellent.
I like that you blacked out the birds, a proper silhouette for me.

[John Mack]

Love this silhouette. Nice to have three birds in the frame with great color in the water. Neat to see the open bills as well.

[Dorian Anderson]

Super nice silhouette! I like my the blacks nice and dark in these shots, and you got that spot on. Colors and composition are wonderful. My only issue is that the standing bird seems like an after thought compared to the flying others. They are
the most exciting part of the frame and the super wide crop kinda minimizes their impact. Tightening it would help accentuate the birds a bit more.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Alex, glad you got to see a nice sunset with some Avian subjects.

Agree on going tighter, but still retaining the 16x9 format (but using RoT's) the top line just sits on the LH birds head, then just moving the whole crop a tad to the LHS. Additbg a Grad filter at the foot will add some more depth/layering, drawing the eye to the subjects. The issue as presented is the halos around all three subjects.

TFS
Steve

[Alex Becker]

Thanks all, much appreciated. Taking a little off the bottom helps, will look at the other crop suggestions too. Got a little lazy with the processing and just sharpened the whole thing -- just sharpening the birds removes the halo so good to go there, and good to keep me on my toes. Thanks again,

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Very nice colors. Nice Head Angles for all the birds.

I would take some at the bottom to make it pano crop.

TFS