I've been away from all bird forums, including this one, for about five-months, dedicating myself exclusively to my annual quest to become a better landscape photographer. The shocker on that is that I'm strongly considering going back to film for scenics! On other news, one of my images of a red-shouldered hawk won the 2008 Member's Choice Award at the Florida Museum of Photogrphic Arts - that was quite an honor. Much more to tell but I digress....
Went for an avian shoot to Ft. De Soto a couple of evenings ago for the first time in months. This Tricolored Heron performed a spectacular ballet for us right at Sunset, hence the title. The light was spectacular and I was very careful to capture it as seen. I shot this in daylight WB which worked very well. Notice that the leading edge of the bird's left wing is being shadowed by the head and neck and that area shows the color of the bird in the absence of this spectacular light. Also, I thought the bright wing on the left side of the image and the dark background contrasted well with the darker wing and lighter background on the right. The angle chosen was about 20-inches above the ground so as to keep a distracting background out of the frame. For a larger image where you can see more detail of the bird's face go here: http://www.josesuro.com/gallery/2791...99909026_u4uZx
This is Act 1 of three .
Thanks for looking.
Best,
Jose
D300 - 200~400 + 1.4xTC @ 350mm - 1/1000s @ F5.6 - ISO 800 - Manual exposure @ -1 stop - Daylight WB - minor contrast adjustments, slight burning-in of the top left background and sharpenning all in PS CS4.
Spectacular light and pose, Jose. I like the contrast with the dark BG. Only thing disturbing me is apparent need for a little CW rotation. A slightly better head angle would be nice - looking forward to Act2.
If there is anything to nitpick. The shadow created by the inner part of the wing is very stron and it makes it almost seem like that part of the wing is oversharpened. If you open that up a bit the effect should be turned down. Might not bother others, maybe even what you want, but it was a small distraction to me.
Thanks all for the crittiques, especially the CW rotation, which couldn't have come at a better time as I got an order for a large print yesterday evening. The weird ting is that the original is straight. I must have done something when I reduced it for the web. First image I've processed in CS4 and I had trouble with my web-prep actions and had to do it manually....
Tricolored Ballet - Act 1
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