Stately Limpkin

[Jay Gould]

Imaged on my last day of Jim Neiger's workshop

Camera: 50D
Capture date/time: 30 Sep 09
Light condition: clear
Lens: 300 f/2.8
Focal length: 420mm
Extender: 1.4X
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no;
ISO: 800
Exp Prog: Manual
Speed: 1/800 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Exp Comp: 0
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: no
Filter: None
Crop: 50% - shot horizontal and cropped to a vertical.

Processed in LR 3 (beta) and then CS4 - the "usual" plus Topaz Denoise and Pixel Genius Sharpening.
All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[Harshad Barve]

Lovely image Jay , looks like you had blast of time with Jim :)
Nice pose , lighting , compo and sharpness , BG looks good
TFS

[Danny J Brown]

Hi Jay - This is a very nice image with a sweet background. Looks like you are putting that 300/2.8 to good use. I've never seen one of these in real life so thanks.

[ChasMcRae]

Great portrait of this reclusive bird.
I always love to see it when it exposes itself.
Good HA(notice I now know what HA means) and background is nice and natural for the bird.

[David Fletcher]

Excellent shot Jay. All been mentioned so am only adding my respects and best wishes for Xmas to you and your loved ones.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Lovely light and posture Jay! Personally I would prefer more room on the left?

[Suzanne Huot]

Great capture of a very shy and elusive bird .lovely detail on the feathers too,would perhaps like to see a little more room in front of bird if you had it to spare

[Jay Gould]

Thanks everybody for all of you thoughts and comments; I will repost after Xmas with "room on the left"!

Happy Holidays from El Calafate, Argentina :D

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I like this Jay, you are definitely getting the hang of this bird photography mate! Well done. Comp is pretty tight, but not unappealing at all. I would retouch the blueish blob above the wing area in the BG and crop a little more from the RHS. Good one mate! :)

[Jay Gould]

Thanks Akos, it will be done!

[Bob Pelkey]

The call of this species makes it worthwhile to pursue anywhere, Jay. Very nice find at a range with everything going in your favor except for what resulted in the blue spot in the image, regrettably a distraction. The shot presented in portrait style is something I wouldn't consider. I much prefer the square to landscape crop best viewed on a computer monitor. As suggested, it might benefit the appeal of the image to have the body of the bird more toward the right third of the frame in favor of the eye in that of the left. The closer you get your crop to landscape, the more I'd visualize the bird to the right.