Great Kiskadee - crest display

[Russ Chantler]

30D, 500f4 & 1.4X, ISO 320, AE, @f8 & 1/250th, flash -1/3

These guys usually show only a thin yellow line down the top of their head. They display only in excited interaction with each other - and not for long. I've never seen one throw his crest this high. I was set up on another bird & had to quickly move 10 feet to my left & shoot through a hole in the foliage.
Extreme crop to get rid of the surrounding branches & leaves. Left a bit of branch in the shot to give at least a hint of environment. Standard post-processing - on a laptop.

http://www.russchantler.com/

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN, Russ! Great first post. Exposure control and details look great but the raised crest puts it over the top for me. I might give it a bit more room on the right and clone out the branch at the bottom. Keep them coming!

P.S.: I fixed the thumbnail.

[James Salywoda]

I'm with Axel on his suggestions which would improve this wonderful shot.

[Fabs Forns]

Now, you do know how to make a grand entrance :)

Great big welcome, hope we can help you improve your skills and don't be shy and leave some feedback on others, that is a great learning tool, more to the one that does the critique than to the one receiving, believe or not.

Lookng forward to more and you can take advantage of our size limits and go a little bigger.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Great first post, I love when these guys do that and it os not easy to get a nice shot as this one, the crop shows a bit, specially in the BG, some NR could help there, I would also remove the branch in the bottom. Great BG, nice light, exposure and detail, congratulatons and welcome!

[Arthur Morris]

Spectacular raised crest, head angle, and COMP. How big a crop? (The BKGR looks a bit noisy.) Big time welcome and a wonderful first post.

[Russ Chantler]

Cropped to 701 X 1053 px. and then re-sized from there. Now that you mention it I can see the noise when I look for it. I'll do some more work on the shot. Thanks for your comments.