This is a western crowned pigeon native to Papua New Guinea. The picture looks like I used flash, but I didn't. The bird was illuminated by a bright overcast sky, and the background was in deep shade from the thick jungle foliage. I wanted to capture the impressive profile of the bird for two reasons: First, the feathered crest of the pigeon was especially beautiful, and second, extensive depth of field in the dark environment of the jungle floor was impossible to achieve. Only with a profile shot in which the crest was parallel with the plane of the digital sensor could I show its detail with sharpness. My settings were 1/60, f/5.0, and 3200 ISO. I was trying to keep the ISO from becoming too high, and that's why I used such a slow shutter. This was risky, but I took that chance. I captured this a few years ago; had I taken this today with my current camera (Canon 1Dx Mark II), I would have raised the ISO at least one stop to make the shutter a minimum of 1/125. I made the exposure with a Canon 5D Mark III and a 300mm f/2.8 telephoto.
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