Bathing Spoonbill

Gallery: AvianPosted May 8, 201657 views6 comments

Roseate Spoonbill

Something on the fun side. This bath must have felt good, because it went on for a long time. These are big birds and they throw up a lot of water. I struggled with the exact crop, but this version let me keep all of the elements I wanted without too much boring background above. In the full-size image, notice how the droplets refract the colors of the feathers.

Taken at Live Oak Nursery in April of 2015.
D7200, tripod, cable release.
1/2500 @ f/7.1
ISO 500
Tamron 150-600mm @ 460mm
Cropped to 43% of the frame.
Sharpening, minor exposure adjustment, and cloned out a small branch.

Your comments and thoughts are welcomed.

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Raoul Breaux Jr on May 8, 2016 at 2:45 PM

Isn't it always something! Last night, very late, I was fooling around with the Viveza module of the Nik suite, and left the color temperature of this picture just a tad on the cool side. When I exported the file, I forgot and didn't reset it. So when viewing this picture, jus imaging that it is about 275 degrees warmer! wink

Registered on April 27, 2016, 20 Posts, 142 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on May 9, 2016 at 7:41 AM

I like the action you caught in this image. The water droplets are great! Also like the position of the birds head. I do think if you could have avoided the log on the left side the image would be better. Color looks OK to me, but it would be nice to see a corrected version. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Thompson on May 9, 2016 at 4:39 PM

Great action well captured Raoul.

Registered on August 7, 2014, 125 Posts, 2319 Comments

Comment posted by Raoul Breaux Jr on May 10, 2016 at 8:57 PM

Thought I'd post the exposure with the white balance as it should have been. Not a big difference, but hopefully it helps.

Registered on April 27, 2016, 20 Posts, 142 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on May 10, 2016 at 11:25 PM

Excellent work, Raoul. Plenty of shutter speed to stop the water cold as well as prevent motion blur in the wings. I love the water. First time I've notice droplets from a bathing bird picking up color from the bird-very cool.

devil

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

Comment posted by Raoul Breaux Jr on May 11, 2016 at 3:00 PM

Thanks for the feedback, John, Steve, and Dennis; it is appreciated.

The old, downed tree in front of the bird has a purpose--at least for the birds. This pond has several, very large alligators, and I believe that the birds were using that space behind it because they felt a little more secure.

Registered on April 27, 2016, 20 Posts, 142 Comments