Alicante Spain Birding Week

htid

htid

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Chris
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2 weeks ago my dad, his mate and I went to Alicante to see what we could find, having read good stuff about the reserves in the surrounding area. It didn't disappoint - 25c sun and great light every day in November! Got some excellent shots but a lot to get through so I will just post them in this thread as and when I get round to processing them. All taken with the d500, 500f4 and 1.4tc.

Drove up to Alcoi where there's a griffon vulture reintroduction project. After a near mile hike to the top of the hill we finally got to the top and got 1 close fly past in 3 hours, the rest of them soaring way way above. Wish the head was lower so it was contrasting against the sky instead of the body but you can't have everything.


Black Stork (juvenile) At El Hondo nature reserve:




*IMAGE REMOVED - NO LONGER DEEMED NECESSARY*

Marsh Harrier at El Hondo (not sure what the blue colour is on the face...looks like flash or something but obviously it can't be. Ruins the shot really but it was the best I got so thought I'd include it as it's otherwise sharp):
 
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Lovely Griffon Vulture shot, we got them here in the South of France (Gorge du Verdon) great to see them flying about. I might go there this weekend.
 
Looks like you had a great time Chris, Black Stork for me :)
 
Good to have a dedicated "bird" outing, Chris ........ I hope that you had a great time and the weather can be perfect down there this time of year

you make a comment about the "blue" in the bird's face in your last image

something to do with how you have processed the bird - when I stick it into the way I analyse (my) shots after pp, I get the following, the band around the bird ........... .... fringe-ing, (caused by processing) - most people would never see it, in this image?

............ the blue in the face, that you refer to, (colour fringe-ing?), can be removed by adjusting CA

I think that the more pixels we get the more there will be processing fringe-ing, (my term), caused by pp and maybe more colour fringing caused by the lens/sensor - but I really know nothing about it


Nice shot but on a composition note I personally would remove the stuff in the top LH quarter and clone the sky in


Chris_blue.jpg



Chris, with the Storks ..black birds against a sky can naturally get under-exposed - I think if you review the B & W and shadows/contrast etc., that you can lift them a little bringing out more details etc., - also always watch the blues
 
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Hi bill thanks for your comments.

The MH has this thing on the face in the original shot so it's nothing to do with processing. I'll show you later when I'm home. It really does look like flash bouncing off a shiny metallic object in the original so I have no idea.

I didn't wonder about the blacks on the stork. They looked ok to me but appreciate your comments nonetheless.
 
Greater Flamingo x 2. Not sure how to process them to make the colours match. It was slightly different lighting between the two shots so the originals were different. Tried my best to get them looking consistent but don't think I've done a great job.



[url=https://flic.kr/p/PyV2Bi][/url]
 
Those are pretty good Chris

very attractive shots ......... I don't see any negatives ........ only positives
 
Nice work on the Vulture Chris, I don't think having the head against clear sky would be a reality on a shot like this, so its fine for me.

On the Storks, I'd have just gone with the first one. That has a lovely dorsal view and nice details, and having a back view allows a little leeway with the relatively steep shooting angle. The next 2 don't really work for me, the underside in the shadows and the facing away reduce them to pleasant record shots.

For the Marsh Harrier, if you want to get rid of the blue in the face, try this little trick in PS or PS elements. Go to the adjustment layers and choose hue/saturation. Once the panel opens you see a drop down box with the word 'master'. Click on that and select 'cyan'. You want to de-saturate all the cyan out of that part of the shot, so drag the saturation slider all the way to the left. This takes away all the cyan in the entire shot, so you want to invert what you've just done, and turn the little white square in the saturation layer black. The shortcut for this is cmd+I on a mac or ctrl+I on a PC. Then choose a brush, and make sure the 2 little black and white overlapping squares on the lower left panel (below all the tools) is white on top, and paint over the face area you want to de-saturate. Job done!

Keep an eye on that little sharpening halo on the underside of the breast - it's a fine shot, so worth the extra attention IMHO.

If the flamingos were shot in slightly different light, then you won't get identical results - the top one is better processed with the extra contrast, and the visible leg gives it a bit of extra interest.

Mike
 
pooley said:
Nice work on the Vulture Chris, I don't think having the head against clear sky would be a reality on a shot like this, so its fine for me.

On the Storks, I'd have just gone with the first one. That has a lovely dorsal view and nice details, and having a back view allows a little leeway with the relatively steep shooting angle. The next 2 don't really work for me, the underside in the shadows and the facing away reduce them to pleasant record shots.

For the Marsh Harrier, if you want to get rid of the blue in the face, try this little trick in PS or PS elements. Go to the adjustment layers and choose hue/saturation. Once the panel opens you see a drop down box with the word 'master'. Click on that and select 'cyan'. You want to de-saturate all the cyan out of that part of the shot, so drag the saturation slider all the way to the left. This takes away all the cyan in the entire shot, so you want to invert what you've just done, and turn the little white square in the saturation layer black. The shortcut for this is cmd+I on a mac or ctrl+I on a PC. Then choose a brush, and make sure the 2 little black and white overlapping squares on the lower left panel (below all the tools) is white on top, and paint over the face area you want to de-saturate. Job done!

Keep an eye on that little sharpening halo on the underside of the breast - it's a fine shot, so worth the extra attention IMHO.

If the flamingos were shot in slightly different light, then you won't get identical results - the top one is better processed with the extra contrast, and the visible leg gives it a bit of extra interest.

Mike
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Thanks for your input Mike.

You're right, I should have just gone with the first (and possibly the second in my opinion - it's good to see the underside imo). The last I only included because it was sharper on the face than the other two, but at these sizes the first too look sharp enough as is.

Regarding the marsh harrier, I'm a graphic designer so I know how to do what you've said...just needs somebody else to tell you something you haven't thought about sometimes, doesn't it :) The halo thing. These halos get mentioned a lot and sometimes I can see them but many times not. I'm not sure if it's my eyes (I'm only 32 and have decent eyesight!), my monitor (it's a Dell colourprime 24inch so nothing amazing but not a bad monitor) or just...well, I don't know! I can't see any halo around the breast though.

The next ones I've got round to processing are these black necked grebes. I couldn't decide which to put in. The first has a more natural pose and I liked the detail on the side/the contrast between black and white, but on the second I liked the water droplets on the face. So even though they're pretty similar I decided to include them both.



 
another two really good shots Chris, best so far

and well processed

did you take your 500mm f4 on the plane?
 
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BillN_33 said:
another two really good shots Chris, best so far

and well processed

did you take your 500mm f4 on the plane?
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Thanks bill! I have loads much better than this (of other species) good lighting really helps! Yes I had the 500 in my backpack with me (plus d500, 1.4tc and 300pf which I took but didn't use).
 
Next we have a flying avocet at Salinas San Pedro del Pinatar



And a black redstart which I've wanted to get for years!

30911807940_04c99c00d0_b.jpg
 
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htid said:
Next we have a flying avocet at Salinas San Pedro del Pinatar



And a black redstart which I've wanted to get for years!

Click to expand...

These are lovely Chris, especially the Avocet ... what a difference good light makes :)
 
FInally got round to getting some more of these processed. Today, a few black winged stilt shots, taken at Salinas San Pedro del Pinatar again.







And a final one to show just HOW long those legs are! This is the full frame shot. I could barely fit the bird in the frame!
 
Delightful Chris, must have been a really satisfying trip :)
 
wezza13 said:
Excellent shots, Chris.

And not a blown highlight on the Avocet, well done! (y)
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gramps said:
Delightful Chris, must have been a really satisfying trip :)
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BillN_33 said:
Splendid, Chris, in many respects
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Thanks a lot :)

It's a slow process as I don't have lots of time to edit, but I'm getting there! Only another 23 species to go through after the ones below!!

First some winter Dunlin. These ones landed right by our feet! I had to move my tripod back slowly because they were closer than the MFD of the 500mm! They flew off due to us moving, but came back again a few minutes later. These are still pretty much the full frames so I couldn't leave any more space around them, but there was a fence behind us so this was literally as far away from them as I could get.

Dunlin 01 by Chris Cotton, on Flickr

Can't decide which is better

Dunlin 02 by Chris Cotton, on Flickr

These crested larks were landing on an open beach. There was literally no cover so I just tried to get as close as possible on my knees, but it's still a huge crop as they were very skittish, so not the best photo ever.

Crested Lark by Chris Cotton, on Flickr
 
Love the stilts Chris, especially the first, great action and very well presented. The flight stilt is a good pose but maybe a bit flat.

Of the Dunlins, I prefer the first as the walking pose is a bit more interesting. If you're comfortable with a bit of cloning, then I'd lost a couple of the distractions in the background and brighten the image slightly, just a very quick and rough edit, so the cloning isn't great, but something like this. Worth thinking about as the sharpness and details are great.

Mike

htid-dunlin-rp.jpg
 
It's been a long time since I managed to get round to editing these photos but finally back to it and hopefully can get them all done relatively soon!

Linnet (I think)?


Grey Plover
Not the best shot and not up to the standard of the others but just sharing to show every species I saw there


Black Tailed Godwit


Crossbill
I've never seen crossbills and never expected to see them there, but we were walking up to the Vulture place and a flock of them were just feeding in the trees! They flew from tree to tree as we got closer. Unfortunately it was at this time that my camera must have decided to lose all the micro adjustments I'd set with the 1.4tc, so nearly every shot was back focused:(:(:( By the time I'd done some in field calibration they'd mostly moved on and I was left trying to get this one male against a very busy background in muted conditions. I was absolutely infuriated! Oh well, at least I got something but neither are tack sharp due to the MA being out slightly. Yes I know the WB between the two is different, but I messed about for a while and couldn't get them to match, so just left it.





More to come...
 
I really wanted to get a Hoopoe on this trip. The first time I saw one it was a beautiful sunny day and one landed about 4m away under a small bush! I was amazed it came so close...but the problem then became apparent! The head was in the deep shade and the back was in the very bright direct sunlight so it was impossible to expose for correctly. The fact that it was constantly moving about made it impossible to get a good shot so I gave up thinking I'd missed my chance. The place we saw it was quite far from where we were staying but we decided to stop back off there on the way back from somewhere else and lo and behold there were three right in the car park! Unfortunately it was an overcast day so although they're sharp, the lighting doesn't give them the punch I'd have liked...but hey, at least I got to see them close up and get some good shots!

Sorry for the size, but it was so close, I wanted to share at original size to show the feather detail on this beautiful bird


Not the best shot, but showing the crest well:


I really liked the composition of this one and again the detail is fantastic!:


*edit* as usual the quality has been degraded slightly from the flickr original, so the feather detail is even better if you click through to view on flickr.
 
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