Immature Bearded Vulture

[philperry]

This young bearded vulture was taken on my last trip to Giant's Castle. Cannot wait to go there again next year with better equipment and hopefully much improved technique.

Details:
Giant's Castle, Drakensburg, South Africa 18/8/2005
Canon EOS 1D Mk II ; 1/1000 f8 ; Canon EF 100-400mm zoom

[Doug Brown]

I like the look-back flight pose, but it would have been nice to have the bird flying towards you. I would crop from the right and bottom, moving the bird to the right of the frame. I would also reduce the contrast of the BG a little.

[philperry]

Thanks for the comments Doug. How is this for a better crop ? I still need to work on my PShop techniques to be able to reduce contrast on the BG. That is my next task.

[Harshad Barve]

I think Doug covered techs well , lovely image
TFS

[David Fletcher]

Nice one Phil. Like the repost and look back. Doug covered most points very well. Thanks for sharing.

[philperry]

Thanks guys. Next year I am hoping to get an adult bearded vulture fly into photographic range. That would be brilliant.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Phil,
Techs covered - like the repost. Look forward to seeing more!
Best,
Nicki

[Daniel Cadieux]

The repost is an improvement...but I would also crop about half the space at bottom. This would further enhance the comp (IMO) and would also eliminate the distracting dark spots in LLC. I love the glance-back pose.

[arash_hazeghi]

Beautiful shot with nice Bg and feather details, IMO head turn makes up for flying away, I agree with tighter crop on the bottom and would also sharpen abit more. Excellent image overall, TFS.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Phil, The repost is a big improvement. The big problem here is that the background details are quite distracting. Good luck with that adult!

[philperry]

Thanks Artie. The adults always seem a bit shy compared to the immatures. But maybe I will be lucky. And if not there are always possibilities with Verreauxs' eagles, lanner falcons, jackal buzzards and Cape vultures. And failing those there used to be a mouse that lived just outside the hide entrance!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the info Phil. I hope to get there one of these years....