Rail Portrait

Gallery: AvianPosted April 12, 201258 views7 comments

I spotted this Virginia Rail and while he was mostly obscured by the cattails he was foraging through, I was able to capture enough to salvage this portrait. This is cropped to 40% of original and a small portion of OOF reed in the LRC was cloned out.

Larger version available, "Thanks for stopping!"

canon 7D
canon 600mm f4.L
F/8 1/45 ISO 100
auto window beanbag lens rest, CS5, LR3, NIKs suite

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Basri Akcasoy on April 12, 2012 at 4:14 PM

nice portrait, Background litle busy bu nice shot.

Registered on February 16, 2012, 118 Posts, 767 Comments

Comment posted by Craig Strand on April 12, 2012 at 4:18 PM

Thanks for your comment Basri, your correct the BG is a bit busy but thats what the rails like.

Registered on March 30, 2008, 416 Posts, 2885 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Cross on April 12, 2012 at 5:06 PM

I think this is really good considering the constraits you mentioned. Comp is fine, exposure and color look good, and even with the crop there is still excellent detail. I'll let the BG issue go as the good features definitely outweigh that. Nice to get such an up close view of a shy species.

Registered on April 3, 2010, 271 Posts, 1342 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on April 12, 2012 at 6:19 PM

It is a treat just to see on of these let alone get a decent photograph of one, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on April 13, 2012 at 2:12 AM

Even SEEING a rail, let alone getting a clear shot, is quite an accomplishment!
Congrats!
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on April 13, 2012 at 4:04 PM

I like this Craig. Only thing I might do is bring down the saturation a tad.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on April 14, 2012 at 3:15 AM

Good work finding a Virginia Rail out in the open. If it were mine, I might have tried a wider aperture to soften the impact of the reeds. Sure, it's their habitat, but it would be interesting to see it softened.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments