Spoonie & Snowy Flip

[DW Brewer]

The last two mornings I was aat Ft. DeSoto, Allan Rube and I essentially had the lagoon at North Beach to ourselves; shared with a few birds who were quite tame. If we remained essentially motionless out in the lagoon, they would come in so close that head shots were possible. Here is a Spoonbill and a Snowy Egret (with flip) who were almost too close to image. These are full-frame except for cropping to 11x14 format.
D300 + 500mm, handheld, manual exposure

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[HarryB]

Two outstanding captures dave,

 

[Clix Pix]

Beautiful! Love the RR flip! :smile:

 

[Allan]

I know those birds. The egret is still around but the spoonbill is long gone. You caught a perfect flip - separation on all sides.

 

[lbasden]

Both shots are well done Dave. Especially like the flip shot.

 

[Vienna Pics]

Both shots are well done Dave. Especially like the flip shot.

Ditto on larry's comment - love those flip shots....

 

[Bolts]

Nice, Dave! Spoonies don't often let people get that close.

(I need to get out more to shoot, darn it...)

 

[mattcham]

Fantastic flip shot! Everything about it is just perfect!

 

[alexf]

Very nice, both of them!

 

[DW Brewer]

Pia:
As Allan will testify, it wasn't a case of the Spoonie letting us get close. When we tired of constantl;y moving trying to keep up with it, we stayed put and the birds came to us. I have a Great Egret flip image that is basically head and shoulders only; the bird was at minimum focusing distance. When we stayed put, the spoonie came within 25 feet of me.

 

[Sailor]

Wow, wow, what high quality, colorful, well composed images!
Do you have available exposure details?
Looks like carefully planned DOF with mostly open aperture, I'm curious about ISO.

 

[donkolson]

Love the flip!

 

[Allan]

Pia, the lagoon is pretty empty right now. There is the reddish egret, tricolor heron, some greats and snowies, with ibis. Best birds (for me) are ruddy turnstones and, if lucky, a pair of oystercatchers.

 

[DW Brewer]

Sailor:
SS: 1/2500; f6.3, -1.7 compensation, ISO 200; pretty much straight conversion in LR2 (no exposure change, 23 clarity, 10 saturation, minimal sharpening). In CS2, I cropped for 11x14 image at 300 ppi, minimal noise reduction under filters, smart sharpen 2.4 (I sharpen for printing). I shoot manual exposure, making my settings such that auto ISO only kicks in when there is a significant lighting change (i.e., decrease). Hope this helps.

 

[DW Brewer]

Just located the pre-flip image...

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[Louis Champan]

Two excellent shots David.