Purple Martin Pair

[Craig Markham]

Purple Martin Pair
05/13/12 8:02 AM
Garibaldi, OR
Clear, hazy with bright sun to our backs.
Rising onshore breeze coming toward us.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Manual Exposure
1/800, f/8.0, ISO 400
Partial Metering
White Balance Daylight
One-Shot AF

I recently had the pleasure of joining Artie for an early morning field workshop on the Oregon coast. Our
main project was photographing a colony of Purple Martins. After a long wait, this pair finally gave
me synchronized head turns, and I captured this image. The image is as composed in-camera, no crop.
I increased brightness slightly on the birds; reduced brightness slightly on the wood.

Thanks for a fine day, Artie!

Craig
http://markhamcp.zenfolio.com

[Don Lacy]

Lovely colors and good HA, I find the perch to bet hot and distracting so you might want to tone it down

[Craig Markham]

Thanks, Don, I agree that the perch (and the female's breast) had a few remaining pixels of 255's. The wide and contrasty tonal range between the bleached piling and the dark birds was challenging, but I didn't want to overdo the darkening on the wood highlights and get dull grays -- perhaps to a fault. I reduced, but did not completely eliminate all of the the 255's in this repost.

Craig

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image of lovely pair. I like beautiful colors and pose of birds and composition.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like that you have the pari together, and on a natural perch. Good vertical comp too. I'd prefer the extra part of the perch at left not be there...

[Craig Markham]

I like that you have the pari together, and on a natural perch. Good vertical comp too. I'd prefer the extra part of the perch at left not be there...

I tried your suggestion and like the results, Daniel. Thanks for the suggestion. I originally felt that the left perch element provided visual balance, but I think this works better.

Craig