Eager to Learn, Spotlight Image for 7/10/09 Gerald Kelberg
Congratulations Gerald Kelberg
Pied Avocet in flight
Staked out a pond early Saturday morning to try and get some nice Avocett images as they are really quite special birds with a lovely "graphic design". This is probably the best I managed but not really what I had in mind - really wanted images on the water, but they were very skittish, probably especially so because of the juveniles.
ISO was set for earlier in the morning, so a bit too high - meant having to do some NR on the sky background. On the plus side, I am pleased at controlling the whites and I like the full up-stretch of the wing. Bit of cropping, but I think the detail is still good - I don't go for a lot of sharpening.
Technicals: 1D MkIII, 500 f/4 with 1.4 ext, thus 700mm. 1/5000 sec at f/5.6 ISO800
PP: converted in LR2 and some work in CS4 - multiplied layer to get more from whites, Noise Ninja on Sky
Comments welcome along with any suggestions on how to get closer to these little devils!