This is a Jabiru stork returning to its nest just after sunset in the Pantanal region of Brazil. About 200 feet behind one of the lodges I use for my photo tour groups is a huge nest, and the storks are used to people being in fairly close proximity. The lodge built a 3-story spiral staircase about 30 feet away from the nest to give photographers easy access to taking intimate shots of the avian activity. Because storks are relatively slow fliers, I slowed my shutter speed down from what I normally use for birds in flight. That also helped keep the ISO low because the light was waning quickly. My settings were 1/500, f/5.6, and 640 ISO, and I used a 70-200mm zoom. In post-processing, I had to open up the shadows quite a bit to even out the exposure.
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