Orange-bellied Trogon

Gallery: AvianPosted March 13, 2010142 views10 comments

Olympus E-3, 300mm x 2.0TC, tripod
f8, 1/20, ISO800

Taken in the cloud forest above El Valle, Panama. The branches around the bird are a distraction, but the topography didn't give me much else. Trogons are very slow moving once perched; I think I may have gotten away with 1/20th here without motion blur. I needed f8 to get the whole bird reasonably sharp.

Cropped to vertical. Selective noise reduction to background, but not to the bird. Noise Ninja couldn't seem to reduce the noise in the wing tips without loss of detail. My usual sharpening drill.

This is likely the last of the Panama shots. I may re-work and post some of the earlier ones taking advantage of your suggestions. Thanks for all of your comments and kind words.

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on March 13, 2010 at 7:36 AM

Jim,

I think you handled the techs on this shot well, the leaf in the background by the bird's belly & tail could have been easy to blow out, but you didn't. I like the pose, the colors and I especially enjoy being able to see the cloud forest reflected in the trogon's eye.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on March 13, 2010 at 9:37 AM

I also think you did very well here Jim. You got a nice pose from the Trogon and I enjoy the natural setting, "distractions" or not. I found your post in Bird Photography about the challenges of shooting in this kind of setting to be very enlightening.

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

Comment posted by Robert Bunch on March 13, 2010 at 10:30 AM

Nice shot of this beautiful bird. Nice pose and good highlight in the eye. I have never been to the tropical rainforest but from some of the images I have seen here on NPN shooting conditions seem to frequently include lots of leaves and branches and fairly low levels of light. I think you did well under those conditions.

Registered on May 18, 2004, 124 Posts, 2503 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on March 13, 2010 at 11:31 AM

Cool, another first for me. Trogons are definitely cooperative subjects, but I've found that the hard part is getting them at a low angle... like this.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by Sally King on March 13, 2010 at 1:50 PM

Nicely exposed. Definitely shows the environment these birds live in. Would love to see one of these some day.

Registered on December 2, 2008, 416 Posts, 4450 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on March 13, 2010 at 8:43 PM

Looks like you did the best you could on this one. It's a beautiful bird and I enjoy seeing it in it's habitat. A little more room for the tail is my only wish. Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on March 13, 2010 at 10:51 PM

The branches don't bother me a bit, Jim. Lovely image, and the habitat improves it IMO.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on March 14, 2010 at 6:10 AM

Good job on 1/20 Jim. I like the enclosed feel of this one, just like the jungle.

cheers
Rob

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

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on March 14, 2010 at 9:30 AM

what a beautiful bird, Jim. You pulled this off amazingly sharp for 1/20. I wish the branch wasn't reaching the bird's bill, but the others are fine. Sounds like these were some tremendously difficult shooting conditions, and you got some good-looking shots.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Michael Lotito on March 14, 2010 at 9:07 PM

Beautiful job with a challenging range of color. Also a very pretty bird.

Registered on June 26, 2009, 181 Posts, 1558 Comments