A more conventional flight shot of this species. Spent a few days at Wakkerstroom wetlands where these guys are starting to get active. Breeding plumage not yet fully developed on this bird as the brown feathers on the back will eventually be the same bright red/orange as the crown. Would have loved to have had the near wing in a better position but still pleased with this one.
50D/EF500f4+1.4/f5.6@1/1000/iso640/EC+0.67 - cropped, removed OOF reeds in background and repaired top wingtip.
Pretty neat but yes, Subbu nailed the biggest problem: the patch of very noticeable noise behind the bird. As usual I will ask, may we see the ORIG ? :)
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Pieter, you have nailed a very fast flying character, and well done on that. Good dorsal view, sharp where it counts. I agree with the others that there is noise visible behind the bishop. I would maybe run some NR on the whole BG, I believe it will really make this pop.
Thanks for the comments and highlighting the noise Subramanya, I should have noticed that. Thanks also for your comments Stuart and Arthur. Here is the original tiff from raw Arthur.
I had a feeling this was a big crop, even before seeing your original capture. Boy, that is a HUGE crop!! Not sure I would have kept it myself simply because of the hefty crop needed. The BG clean-up is quite impressive, but now that we know and with a deeper look we can see a bit of a "cookie-cutter" look on some of the feathers. Still a nice study in Red Bishop flight (the far wing is awesome), just wish it didn't need so much PP effort to the finished result!
Thank you Subu, your comments are much appreciated. I don't normally like to do so much PP (takes to long) but liked the wing pattern so decided to keep it. I learn something with every post I make so hopefully will improve as I go along.