Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)

[Juan Aragonés]

Last friday I went to Doñana to spend the evening birdwatching. I didn´t expect a lot of photographic oportunities because I expected almost no water but I was wrong because several areas retains a good amount of water and it was plenty of birdlife there. I barely can remember a better day in terms of cooperation by flamingos, they allowed a very close distance and at the end of the day I even got several head portraits from the car.
This one is a bit tight in the frame to my taste but it is a full frame image and, in fact, the bird has been moved just a bit towards the left to improve composition. The out of focus circles at the top of the image may be considered distracting but I like them beacuse they add information about the habitat. In fact, those circles are flamingos feeding on the water. The unusual grey color in the bill is mud (in my blog I have a more detailed view of the head with the mud).
As always, your critics and comments are welcomed

Juan

Nikon D300, AFS Nikkor 500VR+1,4X TC, handheld, manual exposure, full frame, f8, 1/1000s, ISO800

[denise ippolito]

Beautiful details and pose. I like the layered BG it looks natural. Maybe a tiny bit tight but as you noted it's FF and that works for me.:)

[Daniel Cadieux]

A bit tight as noted by yourself, especially above. Should be easy to extend the canvas should you wish to. I'd prefer the OOF flamingos not there, simply because it is not obvious what they are. Techs are perfect, and I love the fresh wet mud on the bill.

[Krijn Trimbos]

Hi juan,
Very nice shot of this flamingo with a nice wing position and good HA. Would love to see this with a bit more room on the right and a little more contrast in the whites/highlights. Thanks for sharing

[Juan Aragonés]

Thanks for the comments. This image is from a series of about six or seven frames but, unfortunatelly all them are really tight and a couple of them even are croped because I was shoting on the fly from the car and I had no time to remove the teleconverter.
Here is a detail of the mud in the bill (crop from a different frame). The light grey color, instead of black, may explain the sensation of low contrast pointed out by Krijn :)

By the way, I dream with the idea of getting a composition like this croping but in full frame size :)

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice pose and details Juan, excellent exposure, would clone out the off flamingos and prefer a bit more space on the top.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Sharpness, pose and setting look very good. I would add some canvas top and right.

[Lorant Voros]

I love flamingos as you know :-). Your are very different than ours in Mexico. Love this flight image with the perfect tecs and the fresh mud on the beak. Agree it is a bit tight. Very well done and thanks for sharing it.
Saludos,
Lorant

[Ramon M. Casares]

Juan, tanto tiempo sin hablar!
Loved the muddy bill and the amazing flying pose. Greaat light, detail and BG (although those OOF flamingos in te BG are a tad distracting), lovely colors and species. Congratulations Juan! Abrazo.

[Hendri Venter]

I like the pose and sharp detail. The colours of the bird is lovely as well as the multi coloured BG. Well done Juan.