Virginia Rail

[Bonnie Block]

80478
Had a wonderful opportunity with a very cooperative Virginia Rail at Malhuer NWR last week.
Not an optimum angle--but getting lower was not the right thing to do.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IV ,Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM
1/640s f/5.6 at 700.0mm iso640

[Arthur Morris]

A pretty much perfect capture. Great bird, sharp, nice COMP, excellent exposure. A tiny bit short on head angle but still excellent.

What did I do for the repost? Did it work?

[Arthur Morris]

Second try. Better? Worse?

[Arthur Morris]

OK, this one was getting the best of me. I am OK with this version, the last for me :)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good rework under the bill on the last repost, with Bonnie's original coming second:) Although I didn't get much on this species this year, but the Virginia Rail is one of my favorite to photograph. I'm wondering why you say getting lower was not the right thing to do...do you just mean that it was impractical or impossible, or was it an ethics issue? In any case the image looks good, with just a bit more head turn needed (as per Artie's comment).

[Bonnie Block]

Like the last repost best Artie. Just a levels adjustment to bring out the blacks?
Tough little bird to get a good HA with the body in position as well. It does not stop moving very often.
Daniel---thanks for your comments. I could have gone down a bank--and probabaly got a better shot. It would have disturbed the bank and
might have sent the bird scurrying. I was content to stay the high ground. ;)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Bonnie; I agree. Aside from cleaning up the shadow under the bill I cleaned up lots of other tiny bright spots in the lower 1/3 of the image. I did nothing to the tonality or contrast; re-saving a JPEG is the likely cause of any blacker BLACKs.

[Geraldo Hofmann]

A wonderful capture, ohh my favorite ...the original then the last rework.