Baillon's Crake - Sydney, Australia

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Well, on the northwestern outskirts anyway. :)

Captured it in Bushells Lagoon, Wilberforce, NSW. Yesterday morning. I was wearing a semidry wetsuit for comfort with a sniper's ghillie suit. I think it worked, I followed it around for about half an hour and was mostly within 15 feet of this little bird of no more than 6 inches. Cropped about 30% off the original. I think I could do with better post processing knowledge though; any tips more than welcome. :)

30D, 300/4L IS with EFII 1.4x, tripod. ISO400, 1/640th, f/7.1

[Raymond Barlow]

really nice image Akos, nice setting, and cool bird., maybe a bit too centered.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful bird with excellent eye contact and detail. I agree in moving the bird a tad to left left to offf center it more. The BG is a bit busy but then that is their habitat and not much can be done. Very well captured Akos and many thanks for sharing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I agree that the subject could be placed further to the left of the frame. I like the habitat depicted, and all the soft colours. Looks like it may be oversharpened as evidenced by the halo and jaggies surrounding much of the bird. The debris in the water that falls within the DOF also suffers from oversharpening jaggies. A very attractive species...love the eye!

[Ramon M. Casares]

I agree with all comments above, specially with Daniel's. Still lovely shot and well deserve rersult after such hard work! Congratulations!

[Sid Garige]

IMO reflection is not strong enough. I would clone and go for a tighter crop. Excellent job getting a very good image of this species.

[Simon Bennett]

Great capture Akos, not an easy bird to get close to.

[Tony Whitehead]

Great effort Akos. The wetsuit and Ghillie suit seems to have done a good job of getting you close. Only thing I would add is a small amount of anticlockwise rotation - if you use the measure tool and drop a line form the tip of the bill to its reflection or the eye highlight to it's reflection then rotate canvas/arbitrary it will level the water surface which is sloping slightly down on the right.

[Linda Robbins]

Marvelous bird and beautiful colors in the habitat. Nice pose and I love that red eye and the wonderful plumage detail. The advice given by Daniel and Tony will further improve your image.

What is a sniper's Ghillie suit? I am, wondering if I need one! Reading what you were wearing to get close to this crake made me wonder if your non-photography friends think you are as crazy as my non-photography friends find me. Only our photography friends can understand and appreciate the lengths we go to to get great images...

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Marvelous bird and beautiful colors in the habitat. Nice pose and I love that red eye and the wonderful plumage detail. The advice given by Daniel and Tony will further improve your image.

What is a sniper's Ghillie suit? I am, wondering if I need one! Reading what you were wearing to get close to this crake made me wonder if your non-photography friends think you are as crazy as my non-photography friends find me. Only our photography friends can understand and appreciate the lengths we go to to get great images...

Thank you Linda,
The suit is built onto a mesh base, with bits hanging off it to make it look like tree foliage with green (outside) and buff (inside) - the bits twist about somewhat. This particular suit is on loan from a good friend who runs a scuba diving supply company, but also has some solid defence contracts, so he approved for this suit to go on a bird hunt trial indefinitely. It is IR and radar proof and costs about US$500.00. About 3/4 size, not covering the legs, only down to the knees. I will get a friend to take an image of me wearing it and send it to you. :)

The bird still knew that I was something out of this world regardless of camouflage, but I think being low and having something to disguise the human form helped somewhat. If I just sat in one spot I am certain that many animals would sooner or later just arrive in the vicinity oblivious of me.

Many of my friends think I am crazy. :eek:

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great effort Akos. The wetsuit and Ghillie suit seems to have done a good job of getting you close. Only thing I would add is a small amount of anticlockwise rotation - if you use the measure tool and drop a line form the tip of the bill to its reflection or the eye highlight to it's reflection then rotate canvas/arbitrary it will level the water surface which is sloping slightly down on the right.

Thanks Tony, Never even noticed in my excitement. :)