Turkey Vulture

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image along Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island, Florida. Some may think ugly, I say unique, condor like. They along with Black Vulture and Cara Cara clean up roadkill, the roads would be much different without them. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED, Image captured at 400mm
1/4000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 1400 Auto WB camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2020 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped slightly for composition and presentation

[gail bisson]

Very nice portrait and I agree with you about the "condor" look. They are great birds!
I really like the beautiful light and the 2 toned BG. I just wish the color gradient line had been lower on the body and not the neck.Not a big deal really.
I think you could have done even better had you been at F8 and SS of 1/2500. The BG would likely still be as smooth but the DOF and sharpness would have been a little bit better.
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Detail on the head is terrific, and the background just lovely. Yes, these guys do provide a valuable garbage removal service.

[John Mack]

Great portrait of this vulture. Love the two toned background here. Detail looks great.

[Dorian Anderson]

Strong portrait of this guy, particularly against the two-toned BG. I would have stopped down to f/8 to get more DOF across the bird. You had loads of light. View of head is money though.

[Colin Driscoll]

What a great face. Nice light and BG. Agree on needing a bit more DOF.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, much appreciated. Some have mentioned that the image needed more depth of field. If I had captured the image at F/8 it would have added 0.5 inches (0.25 inches front and back of critical focus), not significant really to change the image because the subject was close. The vulture is a big bird. Going to F/11 or F/16 adds other problems with diffraction softening the image. The active focus point was on the head which is the sharpest, that is where the not so sharp feather draws the viewers attention. Not really much that can be done when capturing images close to the subject, decide what you want sharp and let the rest slowly go out of focus. Thanks again everyone...