Youthful Curiosity

Turkey Vultures are my favorite bird and among my favorite animals. I’ve been privileged to live in different parts of the U.S. where they live and actually get to know certain individuals and see them on a daily basis. On this day I rode my bike to an area where I regularly see them and I was fortunate to watch a whole group of around 10-12 of them feeding on a deer that had been hit. A farmer was kind enough to move it further away from the road and onto his field so they wouldn’t be disturbed by the traffic. A lot of them were really curious about what I was doing and would fly around me! This juvenile especially was really cute and curious. He made multiple circles around me, I felt so honored.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
  • Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
  • Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

I know I was shooting in the sun and the exposure wasn’t the best. The Raw image had purple around the wings which I managed to get rid of. I had the exposure high to compensate for the dark body against the bright sky, but not sure if that’s the way to go. Anything else!

Technical Details

Nikon D3400, ISO 1600, 1/1000, 300mm (450mm equivalent), f8, handheld. Cropped . Slight adjustments for exposure and shadows.

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Hi Vanessa,

Love the story of how connected you feel to the Vultures. Great capture with the head turn into the light.

Not sure what your exposure compensation was, I would have shot this -1.7. Why? to make sure those blacks are black and don’t pick up any color banding. Which can also happen in post.

You could bring a little more brightness to the head so the eye is more visible and will stand out. You want to make sure not to create a blown out white highlight so a little kiss of editing will do it.

If you are able to move around, especially with birds, position yourself for light. Meaning get that sun as much to your back as possible and that will automatically get you more shutter speed.

He looks sharp from edge to edge which is great. Again, as I am sharing with everyone, get that shutter speed up more so you can catch the flaps with good clarity, too.

Keep doing what you love.

Hope that is helpful,

Julie

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Thank you @Julie_Steelman for your feedback and also for taking the time to look at all of our images. I really appreciate it and your work and what you do is very inspiring!

Hi, Vanessa. I like how he has his head cocked! @Julie_Steelman critiqued it better than I ever could, so I won’t try. Nice catch!

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You are most welcome!

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Thanks @terryb! Yes, I love that head tilt, I would have loved to know what he was thinking! Thanks as always for your comments and support.