Turkey Vulture: First Ever Bird Image - 2009

[Jay Gould]

To mix up what I am processing and applying new techniques including NIK (Thanks Artie for all of the suggestions), I am going back to my beginnings and reprocessing /processing older images. Over time some you will have seen; most will be new to BPN. This was the very first "serious" avian image I ever made when I was with Jim Neiger learning how to HH my 300.

Camera: 50D
Capture date/time: 28 Sept 09
Light condition: sunny
Lens: 300 f/2.8
Focal length: 420mm
Extender: 1.4
Distance: 47m
Flash/Comp: no
ISO: 400
Exp Prog: Manual
Speed: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Exp Comp: none
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: no
Filter: None
Crop: minimal
Alterations: None

Processed in LR 4.1, CS5, Nik and TK Sharpening Action.

All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[Randy Stout]

Jay:

Nice ventral view here, and I really like the head position. I had to look at it for a second to figure it out. Nice underwing detail.

You could probably crop a bit off the left, since the head is angle right at us.

It is fun going back and reinterpreting older images. Sometimes they seem considerably better for the rework, but I have had some that were as good as they were going to get already.

Cheers

Randy

[Jay Gould]

Hi Randy, looking forward to your critiques as I start to post lots of my avian images from the USA and South America. How much would you crop from the left as I didn't think I should put the head in the center of the image? What did you have to figure out that took so long? Thanks,

[Randy Stout]

Jay:

The way the head was turned so the eyes were parallel to the ground took me a second to figure out!

Gave you great eye contact. Never sure I like vultures looking at me that way.

Here is my idea for a crop. With verticals, the rules about centering objects are a bit more relaxed, and since all the attention of the bird is directed our way, I think this works well.

I also toned down the saturation of the sky just a sliver.

Cheers

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

Randy's repost nails the comp. Jay, when it comes to composing a bird in the frame I never worry about the head placement but rather about the body as a whole (except for tight head portraits). Many of my images have lots more room in front of the face than behind the tail, rendering the head in the centre, but still with a opleasing and balanced composition.

Like Randy what I love about this image is the straight-down-the-barrel stare...cool!