BWT

[Brian Sump]

• Brian Sump Photography
• Adobe Photoshop 21.2 (Macintosh)

A local reservoir named Chatfield is one of the great migratory lakes in our area. The past year they raised the water level drastically and it has changed where birds forage and how we can shoot them.

Thankfully, there are a couple very small, newly formed ponds right at the entrance holding some of the excess water. I stopped there this week with Vaughn Larsen and we found some Cinnamon Teal. I returned last Wednesday and was blessed to find some Blue-Winged Teal, and caught this drake banking upon exit.

Canon R5
840mm
Handheld
1/6400
ISO 1250
f7.1

LR and PS. Added a small sliver left at final crop and blended one bright spot at bottom. As a preference, I left the water drops as there were multiple.

Note - the back and tail feathers were slightly shaded and so the darker plumage there is pronounced by a slightly off-angle from the sun.

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Super banking pose captured Brian .... :5
Perfectly timed and well executed , plumage looks great albeit I personally would keep it a touch " lighter " in the very dark parts .... personal taste ... or would try to lift them albeit they have been in shade .
Stunning BG paired with the lovely color palette in the subject ... very very nice !!
I would prefer a classy 3x2 crop instead of the boxy .... version .
Sadly I can see the shortcomings of the rolling shutter effect , I have tried flight shots with my R6 II with various birds .... from small songbirds at a feeder or larger once in the mountains . Finally I deleted them all .... due to the rolling shutter .

TFS Andreas

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Brian, nice flight shot and I like the slight angle/banking pose. I too prefer an image less 'contrasty' in look, but also if the bird is quite rich in colour, then a less saturated backdrop would add better separation. I find the two compete, just my take, other I know will disagree.

TFS
Steve

 

[Brian Sump]

Super banking pose captured Brian .... :5
Perfectly timed and well executed , plumage looks great albeit I personally would keep it a touch " lighter " in the very dark parts .... personal taste ... or would try to lift them albeit they have been in shade .
Stunning BG paired with the lovely color palette in the subject ... very very nice !!
I would prefer a classy 3x2 crop instead of the boxy .... version .
Sadly I can see the shortcomings of the rolling shutter effect , I have tried flight shots with my R6 II with various birds .... from small songbirds at a feeder or larger once in the mountains . Finally I deleted them all .... due to the rolling shutter .

TFS Andreas

So true Andreas. One day hopefully we'll have a stacked sensor/global shutter that will do away with this. For competition or print, couldn't agree more that it takes away. Will deal with it for now until after the Olympics, when hopefully we can get a new flagship Canon body.

 

[Brian Sump]

Hi Brian, nice flight shot and I like the slight angle/banking pose. I too prefer an image less 'contrasty' in look, but also if the bird is quite rich in colour, then a less saturated backdrop would add better separation. I find the two compete, just my take, other I know will disagree.

TFS
Steve

The bkg for sure, Steve, can be a matter of taste. Comments noted, ty.

 

[Brian Sump]

A version with some touches on the darks (more light-handed)....

• Brian Sump Photography
• Adobe Photoshop 21.2 (Macintosh)

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Brian the R5MK2 will be launched way before the R1, watch for around May 23 for announcements on the R5….

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

A version with some touches on the darks (more light-handed)....

View attachment 196405

Does look better to me !!!

 

[Brian Sump]

Does look better to me !!!

Gracias amigo!!!

 

[Brian Sump]

Brian the R5MK2 will be launched way before the R1, watch for around May 23 for announcements on the R5….

Aahhhh ok. I have heard some murmurings but have note researched much. Will dive in...

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nice shot, interesting/informative pose, for me the colours are a little saturated and the darker plumage is not showing any detail, the image in pane 9 looks about the best to me and the slightly less bright background reduces the overall contrast.

 

[kevin Hice]

Brian just a wonderful shot,love the banking really gives a great view. Colors are great. Looked at all the comments and processed images. I would be glad to have any one such little variances and as Steve said comes down to personnel preference. TFS

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

Ah yes, what a pose! Glad you found a good spot despite the change of conditions at your spot. The repost addresses the darks nicely. I get bummed out by rolling shutter jaggies on my R6 - often much worse than you have here. A couple of times I was able to smooth those out in a natural looking way by selectively using gaussian blur.