A Puff of Wind

A Puff of Wind

Nabbed this shot last weekend - thinking the corvid-lovers in the crowd might like this one...

One of the great things about wildlife photography is that virtually ANY species can prove to be a great subject. Even the most common species do interesting things - and there's always a new or different way to capture them. The Common Raven (Corvus corax) is a great example of a common and widespread species that many overlook, but if you take the time to look at them closely they are spectacularly beautiful. At a distance they appear to be almost flat black, but if you are in a place where they allow close approach, you'll notice that while parts of them appear black (regardless of the light), many of their feathers are iridescent and reflect a huge range of colors - from green-blue through to violet-purple and more. Just as I was "lining up" this raven portrait there was a brief puff of wind, giving me (and my camera) a brief, simultaneous view of both the brown under-surface and the blue-purple outer-surface of some of the long neck feathers.

Subject: Common Raven (Corvus corax) in a light wind
Location: Numa Falls, Kootenay National Park
Camera: Nikon D800e
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8E VR - hand-held. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/320s @ f10; ISO 800. no compensation compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Cropped from vertical (full-frame horizontally)

A lot more info about this image - including including a higher resolution version (2400 pixel) - and processing info can be found here on my website:

http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/.

Comments and critiques welcomed - probably best to view the larger version prior to doing so!

Cheers...

Brad