Sulfur Crested Cockatoo

[jstp]

Hello,

Had a day off today, lucky me, and went for a morning stroll around the local pond and took the camera of course. This fella was making a fair racket so I assumed he wanted his photo taken and here it is.

Cheers

Jason

[botspur]

Hi Jason, a good effort.

Unfortunately I have the same problems that you've encounterd here and wildlife is not very accommodating; birds sit in trees so we are shooting at an odd angle, therefore in this one the eye is obscured, I find that eye contact with a bit of light in the eye helps the image. Next twigs and branches get in the way - the piece of tree on the left makes the bird look uncomfortable. Maybe try a 1:1 crop as there is a lot of wasted blue space on the right.

Out of interest were you using your 55-200mm at full zoom?

[jstp]

Hi Clive,

Thanks for the feedback, I have never even thought about the eye and what it can do for the photo. I know about trying to make it the focal point but never thought any further than that. Yes I was using the kit 55-200 and the bird was up fairly high so I was at almost the full zoom, 165mm is on the exif. I have a couple of other shots but the focus isn't that great on them, but I have attached one, I like it because I feel he is giving a bit of a cheeky look.

Cheers

J

[gcowan]

Hi Jason,
I like your cocky. What can you do with these guys they demand to be photographed and then perch way up in the air with their cheek feathers up and their crest down and then you have to deal with a blue sky.
I like the proportions and the dead branch it gives it a nice graphic composition. Have you tried zooming in and cropping but keeping the proportions close to what you have, so that you can see more of the bird. We haven't seen much of that blue this year so it is comforting to see it again.

Graham

[Bobobird]

White against a blue sky is always going to be a challenge so in that regard you did pretty well.

In a situation like this where it is impossible to get a larger take of the bird I would have gone for a landscape type shot with the lovely bird somewhere within that to give it a bit of interest.

At this distance eye focus will take quite some effort handheld as we ourselves are not all that balanced. In such situations it is ok to focus on the head but ensuring that there is some catchlight on the eye. At these distances the slight DOF softness may not be all that apparent anyway.

One trick that people use to get that little bit of catchlight is to use the flash, probably at half or less power. Depends on the situation here 1/3 to half would probably have been ok.

[Flurry]

Coming from a land that can only view these beautiful birds in cages....I love seeing him/her outside under a sparkling blue sky.

[jstp]

Hi again,

Thanks Graham, I have cropped a bit but I can not go much more without the detail falling away too much.
Bobo, thankyou for the advice, it is all going in my little notebook and will eventually make into my memory.
It is great to see them out and about in their natural environment.

Jason