Fighting Egret+Repost

Gallery: AvianPosted February 19, 201179 views4 comments

Snowy Egret (Leucophoyx thula thula)

This photo was taken less than a week ago near Holguin, Cuba. The birds were in deep shade and although there was plenty of noise from them, I didn't expect this action.

I see some motion blur that I wish was not there. A higher ss would have meant a higher ISO. It might have worked though with this camera. At any rate, despite that regret, I like the shot. The "golden slippers" of the Snowy are clearly evident (both suspended above the ground!). We see the tail of the object of its attention exiting stage left too!

All comments very welcome.

1D Mark IV, EF400 mm f/5.6L +1.4xTC: ISO 2000, 1/800s, f/8, 0 EV, 10.9 MP after cropping, NR, exposure adjustment, sharpening.

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on February 19, 2011 at 7:24 PM

Steve, this is definitely cool from a behavioral standpoint, that egret really means business. I do think it is pretty seriously underexposed--right now the brightest pixels in the subject are about 218, pretty far to the gray side of white. Obviously you didn't have a lot of options here, as you're already short on shutter speed and high on the ISO. I'm not sure about the comp either, the subject seems too close to the left edge. I can understand preferring to keep the whole bird at right rather than crop part of it, but it does seem off balance. Just my thoughts, it is some pretty cool action though.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on February 19, 2011 at 7:31 PM

I agree with Brian, Steve. The action of the one bird is nice, but for me the comp just does not work with the OOF bird on the right and just the tail of the other bird on the left. This is too dark for me too, probably needed flash here. ISO 2000 is getting high for the Mk. 4 IMO. Sorry, just not my type of image.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on February 19, 2011 at 9:22 PM

Thank you, Brian and Ron. Strange how every so often I post images that are a bit dark for everyone else's taste. I think I just get focussed on other aspects of the image. With this raw file I have plenty of flexibility about overall exposure via post processing. Here's a try at lightening it up. Re: comp, I rather like the story here (fleeing bird + protected bird in the bg). So, I'll leave that as is, at least for now. Fine comments as usual!

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on February 20, 2011 at 1:07 AM

Hi Steve. Looks to me like an exposure somewhere between the two posts would be ideal. The one egret looks very ticked off!

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments