Black-necked Stilts...

Gallery: AvianPosted May 1, 20071,706 views29 comments

Black-necked Stilts, Gilbert Water Ranch, Gilbert, Arizona, USA
(Canon EOS 30D, Canon EF 500mm f 4L IS lens + Canon EF 1.4x II tc + Tamron 1.4x tc, ISO 640, 1/1600 sec @ f 11, tripod, vertical cropped from horizontal original.)

Shortly after copulation, male and female stilts briefly cross their bills. I cannot help being touched by this act of tenderness.

Comments and critiques welcomed and encouraged.

Comments

29 comments

Comment posted by Bob Steele on May 1, 2007 at 10:41 AM

Holy cow, Tom, this is SO good. One of your best ever!

Registered on November 1, 2003, 354 Posts, 13896 Comments

Comment posted by David Kjaer on May 1, 2007 at 12:58 PM

Tom I love it - fantastic image!

David

Registered on January 4, 2006, 128 Posts, 4170 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie VanTassel on May 1, 2007 at 1:03 PM

Hi Tom, This is great! Perfect timing and a great capture.

Registered on October 18, 2006, 644 Posts, 4801 Comments

Comment posted by Gaurav Manglik on May 1, 2007 at 1:26 PM

superb ..... great image ...

Registered on December 2, 2005, 191 Posts, 2126 Comments

Comment posted by Graeme Lee on May 1, 2007 at 5:10 PM

This is a very cool shot Tom. Agree with Bob, your best posting to date IMO. Perfect in every respect for me

Registered on May 8, 2006, 85 Posts, 641 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on May 1, 2007 at 6:20 PM

Tom, I echo the comments of others - this is simply superb!

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on May 1, 2007 at 7:45 PM

Hi,
This, IMO, is the best image of this species that I have ever seen!! Really, really good.

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments

Comment posted by David Chauvin on May 1, 2007 at 9:08 PM

This is sweet, Tom. Beautiful light and the pose of the birds is perfect.

Registered on August 5, 2004, 1007 Posts, 5595 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on May 1, 2007 at 9:32 PM

Great interaction Tom, quite romantic, terrific shot

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

Comment posted by Tom Webster on May 1, 2007 at 9:46 PM

Wow. Thank you all for the nice comments! Y'all made my week!

Registered on November 1, 2003, 73 Posts, 644 Comments

Comment posted by David Marotta on May 1, 2007 at 9:53 PM

WOW Tom...that's awesome...what a unique pose/composition on these birds.

Registered on January 3, 2007, 111 Posts, 622 Comments

Comment posted by Keith A Anderson on May 1, 2007 at 11:18 PM

Wow, magical moment and wonderful focus with stacked TCs. Way to bag the moment. This is really a super image.

Registered on February 13, 2006, 166 Posts, 1818 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on May 2, 2007 at 5:44 AM

Great capture Tom both in terms of behaviour but also just a photo. Beautiful

cheers
Rob Drummond
Australia

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by David Hemmings on May 2, 2007 at 8:11 AM

Just a lovely moment captured here Tom, love this image

Registered on May 26, 2006, 178 Posts, 1680 Comments

Comment posted by Josh Anderson on May 2, 2007 at 9:44 AM

Great shot of a behavior I haven't seen.

BTW, I tried stacking the two 1.4 TC on the 600 with the 20D and it does work. Thanks so much.

Registered on June 2, 2005, 493 Posts, 2996 Comments

Comment posted by Jose Suro on May 2, 2007 at 5:21 PM

As good as I've seen here in a long time Tom. Excellent!!

Best,

Jose

Registered on June 24, 2006, 267 Posts, 2273 Comments

Comment posted by David Williams on May 3, 2007 at 12:15 AM

Oh man.........love it, Tom!

Registered on March 8, 2005, 315 Posts, 2291 Comments

Comment posted by Andrea Marzorati on May 3, 2007 at 1:39 PM

Perfect in every respect Tom.

Registered on December 1, 2005, 86 Posts, 589 Comments

Comment posted by Julia Flanagan on May 3, 2007 at 6:36 PM

Excellent Tom!!! I had a blast last year at this same spot trying to capture their affectionat display. You've captured everything here wonderfully. You don't mention any exposure compensation. Did you use any to keep the whites in check? Also - great job on getting the eye just right. I found most of min, if I got the whites right the eyes were a bit dark.

Julie

Registered on November 13, 2003, 59 Posts, 986 Comments

Comment posted by Tom Webster on May 4, 2007 at 1:23 PM

Hi ya' Julie,

Oops! I did forget to mention exposure comp. In this case I set the exposure comp to -1/3 f stop. Two things helped me keep the tones in check on this image. First, this was made during my experimentation period using 2, "stacked" 1.4x teleconverters. The extra teleconverter I was stacking with the Canon 1.4x II tc, a Tamron 1.4x tc, did reduce overall image contrast a bit more than I cared for. If I had only been using the Canon 1.4x II tc I would have compensated the exposure by -2/3 f stops.

Second, the post processing method I used on this image helps retain highlight details. I post-processed this image as normal except I left the darks a bit on the gray side. After sharpening the image I created a duplicate layer and added Gaussian blur at 2.5 pixels. I set the layers "Properties" of the duplicate layer to "Overlay" and reduced the duplicate layer "Opacity" to about 20%. This has the effect of richening the colors a bit, adding density to the darks without killing contrast, and reinforces the highlight details. Then it was just a matter of flattening the image and saving for web. This works a charm on many difficult to process images.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 73 Posts, 644 Comments

Comment posted by Simon Bennett on May 4, 2007 at 7:10 PM

Excellent image Tom

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

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on May 7, 2007 at 9:06 AM

Great shot Tom. Razor sharp and fantastic detail. Congrats on the EP.

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on May 7, 2007 at 11:31 AM

Tom: I don't get over here very much but this is an eye grabber. Congrats on the EP. Wonderful interaction and capture. >=))>

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1805 Posts, 26981 Comments

Comment posted by Jeff Hanna on May 7, 2007 at 11:43 AM

Great behavior and congrats on the EP!

Registered on July 25, 2006, 23 Posts, 126 Comments

Comment posted by Preston Birdwell on May 7, 2007 at 12:30 PM

This is wonderful, Tom! Congratulations on the Moderator's Pick! This really is a beautiful photograph!

-PB

Registered on November 1, 2003, 471 Posts, 5188 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on May 7, 2007 at 4:39 PM

W!!! Killer shot Tom!!! Congrats on the EP!!! Well Deserved!

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Carol Hyman on May 10, 2007 at 4:51 PM

Tom, Congratulations on the EP. This is a great shot. I would crop just a bit from the top.

Carol

Registered on January 18, 2007, 597 Posts, 8062 Comments

Comment posted by Hans Spiecker on May 11, 2007 at 7:49 AM

Nearly misssed this one Tom. Congrats on the EP. This is a very touching shot. Prints of this should run off the shelves!

Registered on March 23, 2006, 366 Posts, 4649 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Walters on May 14, 2007 at 7:24 AM

Beautiful shot!

Registered on October 30, 2005, 405 Posts, 3693 Comments