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Thread: Western Bowerbird

  1. #1
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    Default Western Bowerbird

    Found this little guy on a recent trip to Australia's Red Centre. Here he is about to enter the bower and commence some house-keeping. It wasn't breeding season and there were two bowers in close proximity and two males who would switch between bowers. One would do some decorating and then move to the other bower. The bird at the other bower would change over and they both rearrange everything again back the way it was and then repeat the process. Quite comical.

    D3, 70-200 f/2.8 VR
    1/500s @ f/4.5
    ISO 640


    Name:  Western Bowerbird at Bower.jpg
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    Very nice composition. The out of focus bower places the bird in context and complements the bird's plumage wonderfully in pattern and colour. This is great example of an exception to the head angle norms as the bird looking away takes the eye to the bower nicely. Ideally a slight extra depth of focus would bring the bill into sharp focus and to be absolutely over the top greedy a piece of bower decoration in the bill would have brought perfection. Please take this criticism as constructive as intended. This is an excellent image as it is and it made me glad I logged on.

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    Mark, nice work. I love the shallow DOF and the composition, and I agree with John about the head angle really adding to this image.

    Cheers,
    Greg Basco

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by john jackson View Post
    This is great example of an exception to the head angle norms as the bird looking away takes the eye to the bower nicely.
    Agreed!!:cool:

    Mark, thanks for the behaviour description to go along with your image. Very cool. Only things I could suggest are toning down some of the brighter areas of the bower, and cropping in just a bit from the right, (I'm not crazy about the space between bird and edge for this closeup).

    Quite appealing, thanks!

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    Thanks for the comments folks.

    The difficulty with these birds is capturing that love pink/purple erectile crest from a more traditional angle. Normally you can't see it when viewing the bird head on or even from the side but in this instance I was lucky to have just the right angle.

  6. #6
    Ákos Lumnitzer
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    Very nice image with the purple showing and as the other fellas said the HA is not necessary here. I have a question about this; using a short lens is quite interesting, so I guess for the benefit of those who don't know where you may be shooting, would this happen to be at a park where many birds are particularly tame and allow such an easy approach? I merely ask, because I have been photographing Satin Bowerbirds not far from home in Sydney and I need to use a wireless remote with a camera set two meters from the bower and me about 30m away. :)

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    Thanks Akos. There were just the two birds in a botanical reserve. I spent many hours waiting under the trees and as they became accustomed to my presence I was eventually able to maintain a fairly close distance.
    I also took a number of shots using your remote technique with my wide angle lens set up near the mouth of the bower and just waited until their curiosity got the better of them. These birds were far more inquisitive and less fearful than Satin Bowerbirds that I have encountered but in the end it still required a big dose of patience :D

  8. #8
    Ákos Lumnitzer
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    Good stuff Mark! Well done! :)

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