A Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo feeding on Grevillea seeds. I was only about 5m from this bird by just poking my head and camera above a large boulder that gave me cover. Normally one can't get so close. Unfortunately the sun was high so a bit of a dynamic range challenge for the camera. I took shots of about 20 bird species on my recent trip to northern Australia (Boodjamulla National Park) but won't inflict all of them on you!!
50D, 100-400 @ 235, 1/320, f9, ev -.33, iso auto @ 125
It's a lways fun to get opportunities with normally skittish species. I like the feeding behaviour you captured here, and the red feather adds a nice splash of colour. To me the image looks a little muddy - like if the S/H tool was used a little too agressively? Looks like the blacks could go darker and the lighter leaves toned down too. Like you say, this was a tough lighting situation! The busy habitat is what it is, but I find the OOF leaves in the FG distracting. I always enjoy viewing these types of species photographed in the wild...
Good detail on the bird, lighting good. Backgroud could be a little more blurred. The green out of focus foliage is very distracting, as are the leaves overlapping the bird. It would be a great deal of work to get rid of them in PS but maybe a crop of the top half of the bird would work - it would certainly remove the distracting foliage.
It's aways tough photographing with the bright Australian sun, and you done a good job with exposure here. Interesting feeding behaviour captured and very good plumage detail.
Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo
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