Another cropping dilema

[James Babbitt]

• Canon EOS R5
• RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM + EXTENDER RF1.4x
• ƒ/8
• 480mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 2000
• Jim and/or Deb Babbitt
• Thu, 27 June 2024 9:18 AM
• 2024
• DxO PureRAW 4

Drinking for 4. I have heard the comment "Eating for two", when describing a pregnant woman's appetite. This image demonstrates "Drinking for four". This is a Pin-tailed Sandgrouse in Spain. This is the female, but both sexes exhibit this same behavior. These birds live in desert environments, where water is scarce and this pond is a natural year round source in northeastern Spain. When these birds have chicks in the nest, the adults go to a water source and not only drink for themselves, but also to use a pouch hidden in the feathers on their bellies to gather water and take it back to their nests for the chicks to drink. Their nest may be miles away from the water source and this behavior will be repeated many times per day. You will notice that the bird is not sitting on the side of pool, but rather has waded in and lowered herself in the water. Her belly pouch is filling while she is drinking.
This was processed in PS with a few blades of grass cloned out around the head and body after conversion in DXO PR4. Little was done otherwise.
My question, as usual, is cropping. This bird has a very long tail ("Pin-tailed"), but the tail is not very apparent in this shot and is horizontally oriented. Any thoughts about cropping or otherwise? I stayed with a 3:2 ratio.

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot I like the colours tones and detail, I managed to get an image of one of these a few years back - but not so good as this!
Regards cropping I would suggest move the subject higher in the frame/and or take some off the top.

 

[James Babbitt]

• Canon EOS R5
• ƒ/8
• 480mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 2000
• Thu, 27 June 2024 9:18 AM

Thank you for the kind words. We were lucky in that both male and female came within about 10 meters and both drank and tanked up with water. I re cropped this shot and took about 5-10% off the top. Made for an atypical aspect, but this is not a printable shot for me, so not so much concern.

 

[Arthur Morris]

• Flash fired
• Adobe Photoshop 25.0 (Macintosh)

Neat species and behaviour. I'd go with much more of a pano crop. The image needs a tiny bit of CW rotation. Use the ruler tool to draw a line from the highlight in the actual eye through the highlight line in the eye reflection. Then hit Image > rotate > arbitrary. As in the screen capture. That said, I thought that it needed more than .29°.

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, a pano crop, and more in front if you have it, would best suit this image. I'm liking the low angle and rich colours.