African Sacred Ibis

[Stu Bowie]

This was taken at a local birding spot in Cape Town at the end of last year. I liked the late afternoon light, and interesting to see how the light has brought out the purple sheen on the tail feathers. A lower angle wasnt possible as this was taken from a hide.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 320mm
1/6400
F/6.3
ISO 400

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand held.

[Harshad Barve]

excellent image Stuartbhai , loved the compo and details
TFS

ps , Not seen you in wildlife for quite a some time :(

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the feeding pose, head angle and sharpness. I'm not familiar with this species but the whites look a bit grayish on my monitor.

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

Wild tail feathers! Sharp, nice angle in frame, good DOF.
I see the gray tone Axel mentioned, but overall the exposure looks pretty good to me.
I might crop a bit off the right to move the bird to the right in the frame.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks a stack guys. When pointed out, I see the grayish tone too, but I have just looked at the original RAW file, and the same tone is there too. The histogram was a fair bit to the left too, thus a tad underexposed.

Axel, these birds are white, but can get pretty dirty from day to day life.

[Morkel Erasmus]

the Afrikaans name for this bird translates to "chimney duster" - blind fact #42565 :)
nice shot Stu - very interesting to see the purple in the tail

[Grace Scalzo]

Sweet, Stu. Quite a colorful image, you did a nice job of exposing this.

[denise ippolito]

Stuart, Very nice pose and sharp details. I never saw one of these so thanks for sharing. I love the open mouth and tail feathers.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all for the feedback and comments. Much appreciated.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Oh man Stuart, this is great. I was gonna suggest a lower angle, but saw that it was not possible. Still good though as we get a good view of the green salad bar (although I know he's probably looking for more protein-type morsels):D

With those very high shutter speeds this is one of those rare occasions that I would have lowered the ISO...(I'm usually at 400 as default too).

[Stu Bowie]

Dan, thanks a stack for your kind words. Much appreciated.

[Vida van der Walt]

Wonderful shot Stu. The colours are so beautiful and you captured excellent detail. Love the open beak and purple sheen of the tail feathers.:)