Precursor to Nov. Theme - Pomarine Jaeger

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

It's not quite Nov. yet, so here's a close relative of gulls, at least, and a bird not often seen but spectacular and always a favorite on pelagic trips. Sorry about the dark underwings, but any attempt to lighten it produced unacceptable noise levels. I think this bird is a non-breeding-plumaged sub-adult, as ID-ed by the relatively adult plumage but the lack of elongated tail feathers.

D7000, 300 f/4 AF-S + 1.7TC, hand-held from deck of a fishing boat 25km. off Sambro, NS in Sept. 1/6400, f/6.7, ISO auto (1600). Given the brightness of the day I should have used a lower ISO and allowed for a slower shutter speed, but I wanted a sharp hand-held picture.

USM, Noise Ninja, mild crop, and bg made bluer than it was (gray fog).

Richard

[arash_hazeghi]

a very nice specie, the image is quite noisy as presented and lacks details. looks like the under-wing area was underexposed as it just shows grain, overall the IQ is too low to make this a keeper for me. Better luck next time

[Paul Guris]

The bird looks oversharpened to me. The leading edge of the bird's left wing and the edge of the tail show a zipper-like effect. Backing off a bit, or maybe being a bit more localized on how you sharpen, might help with that. Also, is the shot cropped hard or is that close to full frame? Maybe zooming out would help a bit.

I agree on your aging of the bird as an adult. The full dark and unbarred underwings are perfect for an adult. Sub-adults should show at least some barring there and also under the tail. Sub-adults can also show the yellow on the neck and throat, but I wouldn't expect it to be this strong and perfect.

[Richard Stern]

Hi all,

To respond specifically to the comments - this was one of several Poms and a S.Polar Skua that were circling very close around the boat on that trip. This image wasn't cropped at all, and in retrospect perhaps I should have removed the TC and just used the 300mm lens. The light was very harsh, with a sort of sunlit fog all around us. I agree I should have been more selective in sharpening, and in future will try not to sharpen edges too much. I use auto-ISO and aperture priority saved as a preset in my camera, but since seeing Arash's comments, and others on some of my images, I have changed the max. ISO from 1600 to 800. I use Lightroom for pp, and sometimes Noise Ninja in addition.

BTW I have numerous other shots of Poms and the Skua from that trip, but unfortunately none are really good enough to show in BPN! It's a great learning situation here.

Richard