Red-headed Vulture

[Richard Stern]

One of a pair of this critically endangered species; Desert N.P., Rajasthan, India in Jan. I suspect the white material it was carrying may have been nesting material, or it may have been just something caught up. I decided to leave it in, but if anyone feels the image would be better with it cloned out, I certainly have no problem with that.

In the original I had clipped the bottom wing, so I used the advice in some of the tutorials in BPN to fix it.

D300, 80-400VR, hand-held, 15M. away. 1/800, f/10, -2/3EV, ISO500.

Richard

[Ignacio Yufera]

I would leave it, it's kind of intriguing but doesn't look artificial IMO.
Nicely captured expression.

[Arthur Morris]

Love the powerful wing position, the perfect EXP, the COMP, and the SH. If you can determine that the strand is manmade I would eliminate it.... Pretty good flight image made with a lens that is not supposed to be able to focus on flying birds.... :)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Beautiful comp and a killer wing position. Dont mind the strand at all. There is a very prominent halo around the bird...probably a result of high contrast and/or sharpness.

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

I noticed the halo myself after I had posted the image! So here it is again, with both the halo and the string (?) trailing from the foot, removed. I think it looks better.Thanks for looking, and the comments.

Richard

[Arthur Morris]

I like it without the strand. Was it a wide halo?

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

Yes ... compare the before and after images.

Richard

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks. I am not that good at seeing halos!