A Few Minutes with the King

[Doug Brown]

King Vulture, that is. Taken during a brief encounter on my Costa Rica workshop with Greg Basco in February. Photographed from a blind through glass. This magnificent bird was a target species for me this year and I was fortunate to get a quality frame. King Vultures are HUGE and extremely skittish. This one dwarfed the Black Vultures around it.



Canon 1D Mark IV, 400mm, f/6.3, 1/200, ISO 800, manual exposure, tripod

[Dan Brown]

Awesome shot Doug! Congrats on this target! Great BG HA and sharpness. Through glass? The blind had window glass? Interesting!

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Doug, great details on this and those colours are amazing! He does look surprised to see you :eek:

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Doug, this is awesome. terrific details and nice HA. loved the comp. too. Bg adds to it big time.

[Allen Hirsch]

I'm stunned you got that much feather detail even shooting through glass. Well done!

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent Doug, love the mix of colors and complex details.

[Pieter de Waal]

Fantastic image Doug, my first encounter with this species. Good detail all round and awesome light.

[Arsdel Fluesmeier]

Great shot of an ugly bird. Colors great.

[Giulio Zanni]

Very nice. I waited for it for two days during my stay in Costa Rica but no luck....

Giulio

[Neil Nourse]

Excellent Shot Doug. The detail is amazing and the BG is perfect for the birds colors.

Neil

[Mike Tracy]

Was placing him above you in the frame a conscientious decision to pay homage to his name ?

I might wish for a bit smoother of transition of the colors in the background. I realize these jpegs don't do themselves justice so take that with with a grain of salt. Maybe a tad more off the bottom because I am unsure if the oof wing works as is but would still keep some of it while playing with alternative crops. Other then that its exceptional.

[Harshad Barve]

This is just too much , terrific capture Doug
TFS

[Kristin Brown]

Fantastic image of an awesome bird Doug! I love the "hairs" on top of it's head. Such detail!
Congrats!

[Kiran Poonacha]

WOW, what a bird this is Doug Bhai, loved the beautiful colors and details in the frame..

[Stu Bowie]

Hey Doug, you nailed the pose here, and what fantastic detail and colours. If this were mine, I would probably crop a bit off the bottom to eliminate the wing. The glass must have been spotless. I came across this species at a local animal park during my recent holidays, but he was behind a wire mesh cage, so not much chance of a decent shot. Cheers.

[Manjeet & Yograj Jadeja]

stunning detail, considering that it was shot through glass,
superb composition and pose

[James Alexander]

Just marvelous as everyone has stated. Question, though, regarding shooting through the glass...was your lens flush (touching) with the glass? Did you slap on a UV filter to protect your glass? Did you use a rubber lens hood? Other tips that would be helpful for aquariums, airplanes and so on? Thanks for responding. Alex

[Doug Brown]

Just marvelous as everyone has stated. Question, though, regarding shooting through the glass...was your lens flush (touching) with the glass? Did you slap on a UV filter to protect your glass? Did you use a rubber lens hood? Other tips that would be helpful for aquariums, airplanes and so on? Thanks for responding. Alex

Hi James. I'm no expert at shooting through glass; this was my first time. I was shooting a 400mm f/5.6 mounted on a Wimberley + tripod. The lens wasn't big enough to get flush with the glass of the blind. I don't use UV filters on any of my lenses. The 400 has a built-in hood but I don't remember if it was extended or not. I just looked for critical focus through the viewfinder and stopped down just a little. Must have gotten lucky with this frame from the sound of things.

[Doug Brown]

Thank you all for taking the time to comment!