I thought I would end 2010 with one of my personal favourites. I have long known of Lake Nakuru's reputation for flamingos. But when I finally visited the park I was just blown away. What an awesome place ! The lake is just stuffed full of lesser flamingos. There must have been more than 1 million when I was there (but beware: they can all disappear to another lake - so they are not totally predictable). Unfortunately when I get really, really excited my photographic technique tends to fly out the window a bit. But fortunately, of the many photos I took, I got one where I managed to isolate a single bird as it took off - but with heaps of OOF flamingos providing that wonderful soft pink background that is unique to Nakuru and other flamingo locales.
Tech Details:
Canon EOS 50D and 400 f4 DO + 1.4x ; 1/1600th ; f8 ; ISO 400 ;
Very nicely done Phil, must be a wonderful site to see. I would be the same, get over excited and get most of the oppotunities wrong. I like the soft BG with all the flamingos in it, bird nice and sharp but would have been better if the bird was facing your way.
It must be an awesome site, visual overload.
Good point by Vivaldo about the angle of bird, but it does give us a nice view of his dorsal plumage.
The image looks a bit too bright on my monitor, and I might be tempted to try a version with a low opacity blend mode in multiply to the bird at least, and perhaps the entire image, to tone down the hightlights.
This would really help tone down the OOF birds below the subject, so they don't distract quite so much.
In a perfect world, I would wish that he was clear of the green clump behind.
Hi Phil as you know these are my favourites and I like the image for the reasons above. The OOF birds add to the image and puts the Flamingo right in its habitat. Like the dangling legs and outstretched wings which show off the plumage pattern very well.
Thanks for all the comments everyone. To be honest I am not too worried about the OOF flamingos and greenery - I am quite happy to leave them as they are. But I guess I should have a go sometime to do some selective work to see how much it might improve the image.
You get the final choice on all of your decisions. Often I don't expect people to change images, but rather think about these things when out in the field. The better you get it in the camera, the less fiddling you have to do later.
No problem Randy. I like to hear what other photographers prefer and I also sometimes recommend that a background is toned down. However for this particular photo I am happy that the OOF images help to reinforce the fact that the lake has such enormous numbers of flamingos - and the greenery also adds a little contrasting colour. I certainly agree that it is best to iron out most of the pictures bugs in the field - that's what we all tried to learn when we shot with flim.
Lesser Flamingo taking Flight
Phil Perry Wildlife Photography
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