Description: On Friday, my friend posted that someone observed a roseate spoonbill feeding in an oxbow of the Saline River. The light was bad and it was very rainy on Friday evening so I decided to go after the bird on Saturday morning. A slight drizzle and heavy cloud cover was the shooting conditions after my arrival at the sight. The spoonbill was feeding in the shallows about 200 yards away and the ventured away from sight. I waited and waited and several egrets flew in followed by the spoonbill. I chose to use a 1.4x teleconverter on the 600, knowing that optimal birder views are at further distances than for optimal photography. The sun briefly came out and the autofocus locked and was able to get 4 reasonable shots. The bird was close to the edge of the frame so I added some more sky to the frame for the comp. And that is Michigan’s first record for roseate spoonbill.
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Pertinent technical details or techniques:
D850 600mm +1.4xTC (1/1250 sec at f6.3, ISO 1000), Topaz DeNoise, Daylight Temperature, Levels, Shadows % Highlights, Brightness & Contrast, Canvas added to RH side with additional sky added. The Daylight option for white balance removed the cyan cast and added subtle warming to the image…Jim
Is this a composite? yes–sky added to right side of frame.
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Hi Jim
I love the Roseate Spoonbill, emerging the trees and flying into a neutral sky. The coloring on this Spoonbill breath taking, you pick the shot to post. Nice work.
Peter
How incredible. So glad you got a chance to get near it and get this terrific image. I like the addition of the green because it gives us context. Super detail in the face and the colors are a great balance between richness and pastel.
I love the light through the wings on this, Jim. My wife saw this when I was looking at it and when I told her where it was taken, she went WHAT??? (we’re both from Michigan originally). Excellent job on this rarity.
