Purple Gallinule (+ mate)

Gallery: AvianPosted September 15, 2011308 views9 comments

Canon EOS REBEL T2i
EF400mm f/5.6L USM
9/13/2011 – 8:38:54 AM
1/1000 sec
Aperture priority
f/5.6
ISO 400
Handheld
Savannah NWR, Georgia
Raw, CS5, 75% of FF (and that's only because this was horizontal and not vertical)

It was hard to decide on vertical or horizontal for various shots, because it was hard to fit some shots in a vertical frame. So this one was horizontal, and too close at the bottom. I wasn't able to back up.

I think these are common birds, but this one was there with his mate, and they were beautiful together, though I couldn't get any appropriate shots of them both or of her, because she was behind too many reeds.

Comments and suggestions are desired and appreciated.

Thank you!

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on September 15, 2011 at 1:57 AM

Nice exposure on those beautiful blues Barbara, and this certainly isn't a "common" bird to me, so thanks for sharing.

Although difficult to say without knowing exactly what parts of the frame you cropped when going "vertical", being that I'm not big on square crops I think I'd likely crop more from the top of this frame, which would help to bring back something of the traditional rectangular format as well as clip out the small slash of blue in the upper LH corner, which I assume belongs to the primary subject's mate, and ideally reintroduce a little more space on the RH side.

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on September 15, 2011 at 3:22 PM

Nice habitat shot. Beautiful bird, well shown in your photo. Larger version especially shows nice color and detail, good catch light. Well done.

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments

Comment posted by Matt Shellenberg on September 15, 2011 at 5:51 PM

Excellent detail in this Gallinule, Barbara. You had nice light showing off those awesome blues and purples. I do wish for a less busy environment, but you did very well with the situation you had to work with. Nice job.

Registered on February 6, 2008, 168 Posts, 3118 Comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on September 15, 2011 at 11:23 PM

Here's the mate.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on September 15, 2011 at 11:30 PM

Barbara, the colors pop right off of the page! Nicely done. thanks for adding your shot of the female. Too bad you could not get them together, maybe next time. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Peter May on September 16, 2011 at 12:48 PM

The second photo is of an immature bird molting into adult plumage. There is no dichromatism in adult plumage, although females are larger.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 7 Posts, 239 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on September 16, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Hi Barbara,
Very nice pose, I like the spread wing.

Just a reminder there is only one image plus reposts allowed in the image critique galleries.

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

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on September 16, 2011 at 8:57 PM

Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry, Nate. :( I completely forgot about that. Thank you very much for the reminder.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on September 18, 2011 at 4:06 PM

Barbara the colours on this bird are superb you have done very nicely with them,nice to see the female as well.

Keith.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments