Merlin Cleaning Talon

Posted by Jimmy G on Mon Oct 20, 2003 8:42 pm

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Yesterday Ian and photographed this Merlin just after it finished a meal it stayed for over a half hour which let us experiment with different flash settings.

Canon 1D 500mm f4 2x 550ex, Tripod Ball head Sidekick, Evaluative metering +1 1/500 @ f10, Flash set to manual full output, Manual focus.

James A Galletto

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by Alan Murphy on Mon Oct 20, 2003 8:50 pm

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Excellent exposure Jimmy. A little steep and I wish it had some color in the BG. Love the raised foot and him licking his fingers

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by Bill Whala on Mon Oct 20, 2003 9:03 pm

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Finger lickin' good supper.

IMO, Alan's critique is on the mark. I love the pose and action.

Nice one.

Bill Whala

"Aves of similar plumage tend to converge with one another"

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by Lillian Roberts on Mon Oct 20, 2003 9:05 pm

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Great pose, exposure and comp all great. Personally, I don't mind the white BG, it's so uniform it's easy to ignore.

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by Rob Palmer on Mon Oct 20, 2003 9:29 pm

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Great catch. Merlins and Coopers both in a couple days. Wow, would I love to have that chance. I like the solid background but a blue one would have been a real killer.

Rob Palmer
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by stevebein on Mon Oct 20, 2003 9:57 pm

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ditto on all comments. Fantastic behavior image. The background could be worked on in photoshop and then , though not as shot, it would be an amazing print.

Steve Bein
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by Juan E. Bahamon on Mon Oct 20, 2003 10:03 pm

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Jimmy:

I also would like a complementary background color, but very nice the way it is.

Juan E. Bahamon
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by E.J. Peiker on Tue Oct 21, 2003 12:40 am

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The background would be easy to tone down in this but I like the photo a whole lot the way it is.

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by Neil Fitzgerald on Tue Oct 21, 2003 2:15 am

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Love it.

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by ajhand on Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:28 am

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JIMMY:

I like the pose, the action, and the sharpness.
But I have a Pileated Woodpecker I shot this way, which is essentially flash as main light, and like this, it has a flat, two-dimensional look that feels very unnatural to me. Adding to that feeling is the large catchlight which looks almost like a hole through the bird's eye to the white sky behind.

aj

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by Sandy Mossberg on Tue Oct 21, 2003 8:38 am

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ajhand wrote:...I have a Pileated Woodpecker I shot this way, which is essentially flash as main light...

AJ, this does not appear to be flash-as-main. I would expect a dark BG under those circumstances. This viewpoint is reinforced by the fact that the flash setting was lower than the compensation setting. Perhaps Chas would tell me why I'm wrong...or right.

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by Anthony Medici on Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:01 pm