White stork after breeding

[Juan Aragonés]

Hi all I have been out of BPN for a couple of months due to the holidays and a lot of work at the office.
This white stork is from our family holidays. Most of the nests in this white stork colony were empty when I visited the place because the breeding season was almost over.
In this image I tried to compose with the bird up in the laft corner with a lot of empty space in the lower part of the frame (they are nesting in really vertiginous cliffs) and looking for an angle that allows to fill the BG with that inmense rock. I used f5,6 to get BG as much OOF as possible in order to isolate the bird. Shutter speed could be a litle bit lower but I went up to 1/1000s becuase I was handholding and the wing pushing the lens was really difficult to manage.

Comments and critics are always apreciated ;)

[Tony Whitehead]

I like the comp here, Juan. Captures the vertical feel of the cliff and nest very well. The only thing that bothers me is the vertical line of smoother BG to the right of the image as it pulls my eye away form the bird/cliff/nest

[Joe Senzatimore]

I might try cropping off the bottom and right side. It would tighten the composition and still give you the feel you wanted. Crop bottom just below the nesting material and the right at the vertical line.

[Arthur Morris]

Love the bird and the nest. A small crop from the left to eliminate the dark straggly stuff below the nest would help. With the little white circles and the smoother vertical strip the BKGR is problematic. None the less it is great to see you here again.

What type of work do you do? (I am guessing banker/investments though not sure at all why :))

[Jim Neiger]

Cool shot, Juan! I love the comp and the nest is spectacular. The bg stuff doesn't bother me at all.

[Juan Aragonés]

What type of work do you do? (I am guessing banker/investments though not sure at all why :))

No bank or investment activities!!! Most part of my daily job consist in writing.... PORN. Yes, not kidding :D
By the way, PORN is the acronym for "Planes de Ordenación de Recursos Naturales" (something like a Planning of Management of Natural Resources) for protected areas and "Planes de Conservación-Recuperación de Especies Amenazadas" (Planning for Conservation-Recuperation for Endangered Species). We have a lot of protected areas and, unfortunatelly, endangered species. It may seems a lovely job for a biologist but being honest, I miss to sppend more time in the field becuase I spend most part of the day at the office dealing with laws, politic guidelines, nature conservation issues, more laws and new politic guidelines quite different to the guidelines of the previous day and quite different to tomorrow´s ones. You know, the technical criteria is, most part of the time, quite different to political criteria and it is a bit stressing to work for politics (I work for the environmental branch of the regional Goverment

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Juan. I was partly right. You are working on protecting out investment in the future of the planet!

[Stu Bowie]

Juan, I like your comp, and good to see the ruffled feathers from the wind. Overall, good light, sharp, and the stork is separated nicely from the BG.

[Greg Basco]

Juan, I think this is a really nice environmental portrait, and I love the way you've framed it. I'll have to remember that acronym!

Saludos,
Greg Basco

[Michael Zajac]

I like the environment shown .Maybe a little off the bottom.Good exposure and comp.

[Connie Mier]

The thumbnail makes this look like a painting. Just a great image all around. The composition and tones are over the top.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Juan, terrific composition. Its really unique. Nice light too. TFS.