Dodging the Storm

[Arthur Morris]

When I met Linda Robbins, Lou Newman, and Rick (vp of Sarasota Audubon), at the dock just before 6am today, we were all shocked because James Shadle was late. James Shadle is never late. A few mintues later, he arrived. One of the tires on the Hooptie Duex's trailer had gone flat on the way down, and now the tire and the rim were just plain gone....

It was not raining but the wind was howling from the west, southwest. We hemmed and hawed and finally decided to head out to Alafia. We did great for a while with some White Ibises and Reddish Egrets in fresh juvenal plumage. Then we got back into the boat to try for some baby spoonbill head portraits. There were two out of the nest but not yet flying that were fairly high in the mangroves. First Captain Shadle got out of the boat. Nexxt he maneuvered us into perfect position, and then held us steady in the face of a stiff wind. Creating sharp images from a boat is never easy, but with everyone remaining as still as possible, we did fairly well (though we lost many images to unsharpness).

And then it started getting blacker and blacker so we made a run for it. When we got back to the dock things had brightened so we decided to head back out, but the wind and the whitecaps were increasing so we made a u-turn and called it a day. I took James to get a new tire and rim, and within the hour we were sitting in a diner having breakfast for some, lunch for others. Outside it looked as if a hurricane had hit....

This image was created from James' pontoon boat (which is remarkably stable) with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X II TC, and the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/200 sec. at f/8 (wide open) set manually. Fill flash with the Better Beamer at -3 stops. Equivalent focal length 1456mm = a bit more than 29X magnification.

(Slight crop. cleaned face and bill, QMed out a single mangrove leaf on the left frame edge.)

Yeah, with the bird facing away I would have preferred a bit more d-o-f to try and cover the feathers on the back, but given the conditions, I was thrilled to create this one with a perfectly sharp the eye. Thanks Froggie!

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

ps; Was it worth it? For me, this image alone made the day a huge success. I had always wanted a chance at a just fledged baby spoonbill with a bill that was not yet fully developed, and thanks to James Shadle I not only had that chance but cashed in on it as well! :)

[Mike Milicia]

Gorgeous portrait!
Great composition with wonderful detail and BG!

I've never seen a baby Spoonbill ... I can see why you were excited about the opportunity.

[Steve Maxson]

Lovely subtle colors, very sharp where it needs to be, a perfect pose, and a good background. If this was mine, the only thing I would change would be to remove the flash-generated catchlight (that's a personal thing with me, I guess :) ). I think that there is enough of a natural catchlight here that you don't need the artificial one.

[Scott Frye]

Pops nicely from the background and I enjoyed the story. Great to see pictures of the young ones.

[Morkel Erasmus]

great story of dedication :) very sweet image, your own nits noted. the beak and eye are very sharp.

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely subtle colors, very sharp where it needs to be, a perfect pose, and a good background. If this was mine, the only thing I would change would be to remove the flash-generated catchlight (that's a personal thing with me, I guess :) ). I think that there is enough of a natural catchlight here that you don't need the artificial one.

Thanks for noticing Steve. I agree! Got rid of the flash highlight and did a bit of Eye Doctor work to boot. I was so fixated on that short little bill that I did not even notice the 2nd highlight.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Peter. I was wondering what that big shape in the bottom of the iris was! I ran the Axel NR followed by a 1.5px Gaussian Blur. Edges protected with Refine Edge. Amazing how much this image has been improved in just an hour. I am in a motel in Sun City and it is still pouring!

[Arthur Morris]

One thing that I noticed is that noise aside, your 40px Gaussian Blur really smoothed out the lumpy parts of the BKGR. You can see that easily by comparing the two reposts immediately above. Backto work for me in a bit....

Axel NR is simply Photoshop NR: Filter/Noise/Reduce Noise and play with the sliders.

[Rod Wiley]

We had a few young spoonies show up at the North Lake at Corkscrew this year but not this close, nice work.

[James Shadle]

Artie,
It was my pleasure as usual. We did make the correct call and do a u-turn.
I had just attached the new tire to the trailer when the "hurricane" hit!

Looking at the "noise" in the background, I've got to believe some of that is due to the .jpg compression.
This file size is 191kb, your files are usually smaller.

Beautiful use of balancing the flash and ambient light. The darker background helps the pastel Spoonbill jump off the monitor.

James

PS Even blowing a tire, I was only 2 minutes late.:)

[Stu Bowie]

I love reading your adventure stories Artie. Great. Nothing wrong with the sharpness in this. Super detail, and its always great to capture the Juvies. Also great to come away with keepers after all the adventures. Well done.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Congrats Artie and co. An image well worth the effort. Congratulations, as James said, it literally jumps off the monitor! :)

[Krijn Trimbos]

Hi Artie,

Was never one that was crazy about headshots, but getting into them more and more cause of your work. I love the soft colours of the juvi and the sharpness really adds to the fluffiness of the chicks feathers! The dark BG helps to make the bird pop. Well done!

[Arthur Morris]

Even blowing a tire, I was only 2 minutes late.:)

Froggie, you are forgetting one thing, for you, "on time" means "30 minutes early."

[Arthur Morris]

Was never one that was crazy about headshots, but getting into them more and more cause of your work.

Hey Krijn, I am glad for that. I have been doing tight head shots since it had my first lens, the Canon 400 f/4.5FD. I guess that I love them as they reveal seldom seen detail.

[Ramon M. Casares]

To be honest.. LOVE IT! Great and cute subject, lovely light, pose, detail, exposure, BG and the catchlight removal made a big difference. The one thing I am not crazy about is the OOF body, but there wasn't much you could do and overall the image is excellent Artie. Big congratulatons! One like this would've also made my day :)

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Arthur - Certainly worth it. One good one is always worth it. The bill of this little one looks like a fresh silicon model, needing to harden a bit. All the softness of a little one included. Sharpness great and agree with the catchlight removal. There are two things I noticed: there is some reflection (hooptie ??) in the eye that could be removed and the green bg looks a bit noisy. I ran a 40pts gaussian to reduce it.

Peter, I meant to ask you, when you did the 40px Gaussian blur, how did you protect the bird? Once I hear from you, I will re-do the image.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Peter. The first time that I read the above I had no clue as to what you were talking about. I just re-read it and it makes perfect sense now! Thanks again fine sir.