A purple swamp hengallinule (Porphyrio porphyrio) in high key, a cloudy morning in Marismas del Odiel (Huelva, Spain). Light was not great that morning so I tried to do something different with this guy. Very slow shutter speed but I wanted to get a BG as much white as possible for a processing job that I had on mind. This bird allowed me to take a small seies of five images and just one came sharp. Amazing performance of the VR in such a focal lenght, shutter speed and light amount. I have been able to get sharp images with this combo at 1/30 handholding but with very good light.
Hope you like this onae and feel free to criticize and comment :)
Nikon D2X AFS Nikkor 500VR + 1,4XTC tripod and WH2 1/125s f5,6 ISO 400 manual exposure
I love it! The image just stands out and pop! I like the detail and the white background. Good head angle and eye contact. All add up to draw my attention to the red/blue face. Very nicely done!
You have exposed the colours on this guy perfectly, as their colours are pretty difficult at the best of times. Im thinking the overcast conditions hepled you too. He certainly stands out against the lighter BG, and this looks pretty sharp to me. Well captured Juan.
Hi Juan, One stunning bird. The colors and details are great. I hadn't really paid much attention the reflection until I read Scott's comments. I like it as it is but, it might be interesting to compare the image with and without the reflection. I was thinking a crop that included just a tiny bit of the OOF body might work.
It is an unusual effect with this bird especially Juan. I like the contrast of its dark plumage compared to the hot white BG. Congrats and your thinking paid of healthy dividends. :)
Hey Juan, did you bite the bullet and got the 500 VR?
So did I, I'm living it, not as heavy as the 600 and more reach than 200-400.
I have even used with the 2X and gotten very sharp images (of course, not all)
Very nice capture, I love high key (clave alta :)) and this is no exception.
Thank you for the comments and suggestions to everyone :)
Fabs, I bited the bullet with the 500 but only in my dreams, (I am still saving money for that lens but is for sure that I will get one as soon as possible, in fact I am considering the possibility of selling my 300 VR... uf, but that is a really painfull decission because I love that lens, you know what I mean). This one is the lens of my good friend Pepe Reigada
Juan Carlos, the colors in this image are not specially boosted in PS, in real life this bird is really striking in terms of colors. I will post another image from the same day and, probably the same bird, under sun light conditions just to compare. The blue in the face is amazing ;)
Scott I considered the possibility of croping the reflection and add more white canvas on the right but the the croping of the dark reflection is very distracting in landscape format :)
I really like this as is- the saturated colors of the plumage really take center stage against the high key bg and the details are wonderful. It has an almost painterly quality that I enjoy, very well done Juan.
Purple swamp hen
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