Going home - eurasian roller (Coracias garrulus)

[Juan Aragonés]

Hi everyone, just wanted to say that after a long three months lapse with a lot of work at the office, a lot of work at home and almost no free time to devote to photography or web activity, my life seems to return to normality. Since the end of august I have posted just a couple of entries in my blog, one entry in my Spanish forum and… that is all… my 500mm lens has been comfortably sleeping in its suitcase except for a couple of hours in the field.
Things are slightly more relaxed at the office now and very soon we will be enjoying holydays so I really expect to find more time for my photography, birds, painting and web activities.
BTW, I have been missing you a lot guys and gals! :p

This image is a heavy crop of about 6Mp and not the sharpest image I have ever done but I like it a lot. The bird is a roller returning to the nest. It is not a frame filling image of a roller and I am sure that light is not the best for many people but I love the empty, white space, around the bird. I like the misty-like mood of the scene and the, almost surrealistic, background at the right of the frame. I am a big fan of this kind of images with white BG (when the main subject is well exposed, not a mere black silhouette against the sky, of course) and each day I enjoy more and more the kind of images that shows details about the environment of the species. Perhaps someone could think that this is a strongly photoshoped image but it is not. Sure I have spent about an hour playing with it on photoshop but that time is just the result of enjoying the processing of an image and it doesn´t imply a deep alteration of the original image. Cropping for composition, levels adjustment (mostly on the bird but not on the BG), color balance to warm up the background a bit and selective sharpening. I love the balance between the turquoise blue and the warm right side of the composition. Blues and yellows works really well when they are put together. :)

Nikon D300, AFS Nikkor 500VR, blind, Wimberly head and tripod, 1/1000s, f4, ISO500, Manual exposure

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

What a beautiful bird Juan and I am glad to see that life is slowing down a bit as we have missed you !!!! Really like the unique flight pose with the twisted head and the composition works well . Appreciated your own self critique and can certainly see why you liked this one so much. Many thanks for sharing.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Hi Juan...welcome back!
for heavy crop the image looks great...beautiful pose/bg!

[Trivedi Vatsal]

Beautiful image! I liked the composition! The eye contact is also very nice!

[denise ippolito]

Juan, Good to see you back. The bird looks great for a heavy crop. I agree w/ you the composition looks well balanced w/ the blue and warm color tones. Nicely done.

[Krijn Trimbos]

I just got back myself Juan! Good to have you back as well! Great bird, nice exposure especially under the wings, and head angle. Initially I thought why did he leave the brown OOF thingy on the right in, but I can understand your point about balancing the composition. Well done!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the crop idea, soft light and the tilted head makes this one for me. Good to see you post again!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Welcome back Juan! Nice return image. I'm with Axel....soft light and pose make this!

[Desmond Chan]

I personally do not think that every bird photo has to be a portrait/close-up of the bird and so, this one works for me. Good use of the negative space. Like the mood of this image !

[Kiran Poonacha]

Welcome Back Bhai, loved the compo here...

[arash_hazeghi]

welcome back, the mood of this image overcomes the technical details that you mentioned and the colors of this bird are amazing.