Purple Martin & RP

Gallery: AvianPosted May 2, 2018211 views6 comments

I was photographing these from a tall ladder to get a better angle this morning. We have a banded female in the colony and I've been trying to get enough angles on the bands to ID it. I think we have enough now. When reviewing the images I took, I noticed this male is banded as well, so now I'll be trying to get more shots of it. However, I liked the way the foggy morning seemed to let me bring out the blues in the plumage, so I decided it was worth processing just as an image.

7Dii, Sigma 150-600 C @ 468 mm, hand held from a 12 foot orchard ladder, f/8, 1/1000, iso 1250, aperture priority, pattern metering, +2/3 EV. Processed in LR & PS CC. I made some adjustments to get rid of the foggy look of the bird and perch and a little cloning to remove broken twig ends at the lichen end of the perch. Cropped to a 13.7 MP 4x5. Taken at 8:14 this morning.

Your comments and critiques are always appreciated.

Thanks for taking a look,

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on May 3, 2018 at 10:01 AM

One of the more difficult birds to even get a good close look at , much less a good image. This is wonderful. Full of detail. Looks ike a finely detailed oil painting. Well done.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by David Bogener on May 3, 2018 at 5:13 PM

Nice detail in the blacks and an interesting perch. Love these guys. A content aware crop might allow you to keep the lichen and move the bird off center?

Registered on October 30, 2013, 417 Posts, 1255 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on May 3, 2018 at 9:23 PM

Following Dave's suggestion, here's a version with a bit more canvas on the right. I personally think the first version works well as the lichen helps move the balance left, but I'd be interested in other opinions.

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

Comment posted by Steve Thompson on May 4, 2018 at 2:34 PM

I think I prefer your original post for this Dennis. Marvelous detail and setting.

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

Comment posted by David Schoen on May 6, 2018 at 6:29 PM

Even though this is dark, you did a great job on the detail and I don't see any noise at all. I also thought it was a little bit too centered and I like your repost.

Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on May 7, 2018 at 10:30 PM

Nice work Dennis! Good techs and nice exposure on this guy.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments