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Thread: October Project: Backlit Northern Hawk Cuckoo

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    Default October Project: Backlit Northern Hawk Cuckoo

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    Shooting this northern hawk cuckoo demanded all my fieldcraft skills and much patience. The northern hawk is not the commonest of cuckoos and like all cuckoos is extremely shy.

    Device: Nikon D300
    Lens: VR 600mm F/4G
    Focal length: 600mm
    VR: ON
    Aperture: F/5.6
    Shutter Speed: 1/200s
    Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
    Exposure Comp.: 0EV
    Metering: Center-Weighted
    ISO Sensitivity: ISO 400

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    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    Craig:

    A good balance here between backlighting and some detail on the camera side too. Very good pose, like the tucked tail and exposed wing tips, head angle.

    I might be tempted to crop in a bit from the right and up from the bottom, and lightly tone down some of th brightest spots in the background.

    Congrats on capturing this secretive bird.

    Cheers

    Randy

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    Congrats on your approach of this guy - new one for me and with an awesome name to boot!. Sounds like a difficult one to get good images of. I like the bird's pose with primaries extending pretty far out. Good sense of habitat, and I like the fresh-looking greenery. I agree with Randy's suggestions, particualry the bright highlights in the BG (and especially the one below the wing tips, and the one directly above the head). I also find that the tree creeping in at left doesn't add much here...add rather see more of it, or none at all (preferably).

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    Thank you, Randy and Daniel. The bright spots in BG will be an easy problem to solve. I should've been aware of them while processing. The tree I was aware of. If I pull back and show more of the tree, then my cuckoo grows smaller, and I wasn't wanting that. The best alternative may be to clone out the tree. Thanks also for appreciating the rarity and secretiveness of the species. When I saw that bird and realized what it was, I quickly went into full concentration mode. Thanks again.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    You did exceptionally well in difficult circumstances and I love the pose and the clean angle to the bird that you found. I am gonna play with the COMP. Be right back.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    It seemed to hold up fairly well to the crop :)
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

    BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.

    Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,

    E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.










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