Purple Gallinule on Fireflag Leaf

Congratulations! This is the Image of the Week selection for the Bird Gallery, week ending 9/5/03!
Purple Gallinule (Porphyrula martinica)
Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, FL, on 26 Jun 2003

In late June I spent several two-hour sessions at Wako concentrating on Bittern Baby. On each day I took a break to look for Purple Gallinules which hung around nearby on their beloved firelag. When I came upon this guy he was deep within the bushes. I followed him for a while. When he finally stepped onto an overturned Fireflag leaf and the BG looked good (rare in my experience), I fired off a few shots. Here’s one of them.

The light was fairly low. I exposed at ambient minus two-thirds because of the light-colored leaf and the small patch of white on the bird.

Thanks for looking. Comments, critiques, and reposts are welcome.

Canon 1D, 500 IS
F11, 1/80, ISO 250, No flash
Manual mode, Incident metering @ -2/3
Image/Adjustment, Toolbox, USM, Crop ~15% from below to 5:4
BreezeBrowser Conversion

Superb image Sandy, the colours and detail are stunning and what a great pose.

Really nice image Sandy, I've never seen one of a PG quite like this one.

Beautiful colour Sandy, well captured m8t.

Wow this is an awesome shot of this bird. Very unique and probably the most interesting Purple Galinule shot I've seen. Good job on the DOF.

Sandy, nice display on this colorful bird. Excellent shot!

Sandy,

Love the feather display and the colors are awesome. The image is much sharper than I would have expected at 1/80 sec.

As always, again something original. I like it a lot. I see also that you upgraded from 400 DO to 500 IS => I am looking forward to see more from you.

Fero

Sandy,

Wow, what gorgeous color and such an unusual pose. Love the over the shoulder look, and the smooth background. The outstretched wings put it over the top. Excellent!

Sandy

Very cool, love the colors

Congrats on this beautiful shot, Sandy!
The half spreaded wings pose and your making best use of dof are excellent ...

Sandy
Excellent.....I know how hard it was to get these guys out in the open for a shot....nice job of "tailing him". Colors, exposure, and detail are perfect as always. What....no flash? I thought your flash was permanently attached to your camera!!!

LHays wrote:Sandy
What....no flash? I thought your flash was permanently attached to your camera!!!

Lana, as you know, my flash is riveted to my camera. I turned it off before shooting because the whiteness on the FG leaf frightened me.

Probably the best Purple Gallinule shot I have seen. Very nicely done Sandy.

Sandy,

Very unusual shot, and effective too. I wouldn't mind seeing the feet, but the foreground leaf is effective as is, directing our attention higher.

Wonderful! Catching the bird with it's wings spread open was outstanding. Curious as to what you cropped as I like the normal 3:2 aspect ratio. Very well done!

Alan Melle wrote:Curious as to what you cropped as I like the normal 3:2 aspect ratio. Very well done!

Alan, the width of the image is full-frame. I framed the shot in my viewfinder on top and on both sides, knowing I would want to crop out a distracting stalk on the bottom.

Excellent Sandy. For sure the most interesting and well done PG picture I have seen. The background is wonderful and the wings are icing on the cake. Could not be better.

Sandy, you continue to impress! This is a wonderfully unique image, and a testament to both your fortitude and aptitude.

Best my friend, and thanks for the recco and support .

Chas

Sandy,
This is prefect. The wings are marvelous and the details are awesome. The pose, exposure and background could not have been better. Excellent work.