Spoonbill in flight

Roseate Spoonbill, Texas

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Are the feet too dark? I tried to balance the lighting but it was not ideal.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

I personally like the blur on the wings and the eye is fairly sharp. Does the blur add to the sense of motion?

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Shot with a 70-200 mm DSLR lens adapted on a mirroless body. ISO 100, f4.5, 1/500 sec at 200mm. Post process in LR and then in PS with Topaz sharpen and some color correction with Color efex.

If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.

@bryannelsonca

The image works for me with excellent detail in the head area and the wing blur conveys a nice sense of motion. Colors are great.

1 Like

A nice shot of the Spoonbill, Bryan. The darkness of the legs doesn’t bother me as they’re dark to start with. To my eye, with the wings straight out, the blur says depth of field more than it does motion, though others might see it differently. It’s almost impossible to get that entire wingspan in sharp focus when they’re straight out like this and still have the bird reasonably large in the frame, I like the side lighting on the eye-it really brings it out nicely and that’s hard to do in large birds. I also like the angle looking down at the bird which is a bit unusual. The texture of the water almost makes it look as if you took the shot from an airplane!

1 Like

Hi Bryan
You have a lovely looking Spoonbill here. The action, coloring, detail and eye contact make this shot. As for the dark legs, that is not a game changer. I did see a fare amount of lens vignetting. This may caused by the lens adapter or the lens itself. Photo editing programs like DxO PhotoLab 4 that can correct this. Nice work.
Peter

1 Like

Wonderful and unusual point of view. The DOF and/or motion issue with the wingtips doesn’t bother me – it’s so frustrating to get sharp images of birds in flight, and to get them big enough in the frame to process nicely. The sharpness of the head/body/feet makes for a very nice image.

1 Like

I was on a business trip far from home and when grabbed my camera bag I assumed I had my 100-400 lens but realized I had only my 70-200. I was at a rookery on a view platform on a steep bank above the water. I was nice later afternoon light and the birds were returning to roost on an small island. I not was able to get a decent shot of the birds on the island so I focused on the birds in flight. I was lucky that this spoonbill flew a bit below the viewing platform to get less common view point. Thanks for everyone’s feed back. Being more of a landscape guy I should have realized the the large wingspan would be out of focus with the lower f-stop but I like to try different things especially when I’m dealing with unfamiliar subjects. I’m happy how it turned out. I didn’t pay attention to the vignetting but I agree that it is a bit distracting.
Thanks
Bryan