Cormorant Feeding Chick

Gallery: AvianPosted March 10, 2011360 views7 comments

I took this last May at Gatorland (Orlando, FL) off their tower. Its actually a downward angle, so the grayish area in the upper left is actually the main pond and not sky that has been hit too hard with a toning adjustment. It took a fair amount of "patience filter" to wait out the feeding and positioning. At the itme I wasn't pushing ISOs hard to avoid noise, so the percentage of sharp shots was low, but this one made me happy.

Canon 7D, 100-400, ISO 400, 1/160 F 11, slight crop right and bottom, noise reduction with Noiseware Pro. Structure reinforced with Nik "Tonal Contrast". (Note - you have to be very careful with this on nature. The defaults are way too high. Also be sure to set the blend mode on the resulting layer to Luminosity to avoid color contamination. I used to do the same basic thing with multiple High Pass layers and the Blend If sliders, but this one filter let's me selectively enhance or reinforce local contrast without having to spend a lot of time on masking.)

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Richard Teller on March 10, 2011 at 11:36 AM

Very interesting behavioral shot. I really like seeing the chicks head up in the mothers mouth.

Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments

Comment posted by KC Choo on March 10, 2011 at 11:39 AM

Brilliant - the tight presentation is just about right for my eyes.

Registered on November 15, 2004, 519 Posts, 8278 Comments

Comment posted by Simon Bennett on March 10, 2011 at 3:09 PM

Fascinating behaviour well captured.

Registered on February 4, 2007, 350 Posts, 4614 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Conway on March 10, 2011 at 9:05 PM

Love the intimacy of the comp.

Peter

Registered on June 25, 2007, 347 Posts, 3913 Comments

Comment posted by Andrius Pašukonis on March 11, 2011 at 12:13 AM

Terrific shot! My only problem is that it feels a bit tight for my taste and I think some more room at the bottom would help. Once again, awesome capture

Registered on July 23, 2005, 111 Posts, 408 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on March 11, 2011 at 5:20 PM

I like the interaction and the overall composition looks good, maybe add back some of the crop off the bottom as it does appear tight but very nicely done, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 11, 2011 at 11:10 PM

Excellent depth of field and detail in the blacks. Nice job waiting until you got the poses and behavior that you wanted to capture.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments