Alafia Spoony

[Stuart Hill]

Whilst in Florida I managed a day with James Shadle. Bit of a shock though for a sheltered English boy when the captain asked what shoe size you take! Didn't realise I'd be getting in! Had an amazing time and great laugh too. Both with James and a rather tall chap called Clem (Tatanka).

Some great images too.

Help/critiques welcomed.

Background was already dark but used layer masks and linear burn to take it further.

D300 Sigma 500 f4.5
1/1600 @7.1
iso 640

[allanrube]

Great shot. I like the pose, exposure, composition. SHame the head was not turned just a bit to get a better look at the eye.

[pat lillich]

wonderful! great feather detail, beautiful light - I love the colors against the dark background.

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent pic. Wonderful colors . I really like how the bird outstands with the backround, great pose and composition. Well done.

[Eric Patdu]

I like the dark background. It makes the bird pop out of the photo.

[Peter Farrell]

Nice feeding pose. I like the splash of water. Nice colors and detail and the dark BG works great. I think in this image the HA works as it shows off the shape and color pattern of the bill. Maybe a crop off the right.
Peter

[John Chardine]

Hi Stuart- Nice to see the action of "spooning" in the spoonbill. I'm happy to give head angle or eye contact away in cases like this because they are often entirely incompatible. You got the difficult exposure just right. Were you in manual or compensated auto exposure mode? It could be an optical illusion but a slight CW rotation may be needed.

[Stuart Hill]

Thanks for the critiques.

John, I used manual exposure. The light was the same but the background could change from dark mangrove to bright sky. Depending on if the birds took off.

It is an optical illusion, but sometimes I think rotation is needed to match in with this. Will have another look.

I agree about the HA. But in this image it was a necessary evil to capture the behaviour.

kind regards.
Stu.