Here's Looking At You Kid!
Red McCaw
Red McCaw
Read less
Read less
Mar, 2014Views
2906
Likes
Awards
Summer 2020
Featured
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Superior Skill
Exceptional Contrast
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 20 rankTop 20 rank week 1
Top 10 rank
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this shot at Butterfly World where there was a aviary next to the butterfly sanctuary.Time
This was taken at high noon. The parrot was under a canopy umbrella and the McCaw was standing on tree branch.Lighting
because this was taken at high noon, there was a lot of ambient lighting available to capture forground and background features that may be utilized during post-processing. My emphasis is always the same - to have more lighting on the subject as a way to capture as many details as possible. This will help to bring out the character of the parrot.Equipment
I took this photo with a Canon 60D with 70-200mm lens. Aperture f/13.0; ISO 1250. Shutter Speed 1/320.Inspiration
The parrot was extremely expressive almost to a point that I thought it was deliberately posing for me. I began taking photos of him covering his eyes with his wing every time he hears the shutter click from the camera. He would take his wing down and I would take another snapshot only for him to put its wings up over this face again. After doing this several times, he got tired of it and turned his back on me. Every once in a while he'll look back to see if I'm still there. This is one of the many shots that best describe my photo op with my unwilling subject. :)Editing
I used Photoshop 10 for all my post processing. In this photo it was important to highlight the parrot so darkening the background was critical to achieve this effect. Subtle Changes in Exposure, Saturation and Unsharp Masking.In my camera bag
Canon 480X Flash Canon T3i Camera (Backup) Sony A6000 Camera (Backup) - Compact and Light. Great for traveling. Canon Tripod Gary Fong Lightsphere® Collapsible™ diffuserFeedback
Be patient and Stay Calm. Take as many shots as possible. You never know when you'll end up with a masterpiece like this one. :)
