Blacksmith Lapwing

[Stu Bowie]

The old name for these guys was Blacksmith Plover. These birds are very erratic flyers, so Im happy to have captured a banking angle here. Taken exactly a year ago, late afternoon, at the University of Pretoria sports grounds.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/2000
F/7.1
ISO 400

Exp Comp 0
Hand Held

[Ignacio Yufera]

Excellent and unusual. I think it's the first time I see a good flight shot of one of these. Love the thin clouds, underwing feather detail and eye contact. The bird's right flank appears clipped in my monitor.

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks Ignacio. I should have stated, I checked that area, and the whites were reading 227.

[Don Lacy]

Thanks Ignacio. I should have stated, I checked that area, and the whites were reading 227.

Really nice flight angel and the clouds are a nice element in the bg. The whites may not be blown but they do not have any detail and are brighter then the rest of the bird so they appear blown when viewing the image.

[Morkel Erasmus]

these guys are super erratic, well done on this Stu! love the sky too. I agree the flank looks blown even though it technically isn't, maybe try to recover some detail there?

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Stuart, we dont get to see lapwing shots from this angle. Well done. liked the black details. Getting both whites and black details on this bird in this light might be out of reach of xxD series' dynamic range, I think.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The wing position, eye contact and sharpness look good. The recovered (?) whites look a bit grayish and lack detail.

[Steve Canuel]

Hey Stuart,
Nice open wingspan and angle on the body. Underwing detail looks good. I like the lighter whitish/blue strip between the white and black of the wings.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much for the feeback. I agree the white on the side has no detail.

[Markus Jais]

Great flight shot wing an excellent composition, wing pose and BG.
Exposure looks good overall but I might try to tone down those white highlights the others already mentioned a bit.

Markus

[Vida van der Walt]

Wonderful shot Stu. The first time I've seen an in flight shot of this bird. Love the wing spread, angle, shade of blue of the bg and the wispy clouds.:)

[Stu Bowie]

Markus, Vida, thank you both so much. Appreciated.