Blue is such a striking color in nature. Besides the sky and tropical seas, blue is not common. I try to photograph it whenever I can. This is a speckled cotinga, and the cyan-blue feathers shimmer like neon when these birds fly through the forest. They are native to much of South America. I captured this one with a Canon 100-500mm zoom plus a 1.4x teleconverter, giving me 700mm of focal length. The thick canopy of trees block a great deal of light from reaching lower tree branches, so shooting in a jungle environment forces the ISO to be high. My settings for this picture were 1/400, f/11, and 5000 ISO. In post-processing, I used Topaz DeNoise AI as well as Topaz Sharpen AI. Virtually all of my bird photography is done hand held; I find a tripod too inhibiting. Besides, because birds move so quickly -- even the turn of their head -- a fast shutter speed is needed to insure sharp pictures. And a fast shutter really eliminates the need for a tripod unless the equipment is just too heavy for you to manage it without a support.
2 Comments
Jul 19, 2022, 6:50:36 PM
Jim - Thanks for taking the time to comment, Bob, and for appreciating what I post. I value your feedback.
Jul 19, 2022, 5:33:09 PM
Bob - This is another stunning image. You post so many, which we all appreciate along with technical details and advice. This comment applies to virtually all of your posts, Jim. Thank you so much.