bajadreamer Loc: Baja California Sur

Just starting to process my pictures from our summer trip to Ecuador. Ecuador is a small country-about the size of the state of Colorado. With .05% of the world's landmass, Ecuador is home to 20% of the total bird species in the world. Truly a bird photographer's heaven. However, many of these birds are really tough to find and see. They live in the rain forests; very dark and very dense places. This species, a Black-banded Crake is typical of these. They love dense, swampy areas where you often hear them in the morning but seldom do you see them. Our friend, Byron Gualavisi, truly a wizard with the birds, was able to set Deb and I up to not only see these birds, but to get nice photos of them. For this shot, I am laying in 2" deep water/mud and Deb is kneeling over my shoulder in the same muck ( it is amazing now what she is willing to put up with). This shot was taken while we were staying in Wildsumaco Lodge, on the eastern slope of the Andes in central Ecuador.
This was shot with a Canon R5, a 100-500 mm zoom at 500 mm, f/7.1, SS 1/400, ISO 20,000 (not a typo), EC of +.3. Processed with DXO Pure Raw, PS, and Topaz De Noise AI.

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Iron Sight Loc: Utah

You all did very well
Cool bird 😎

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Very nicely done.

Warhorse Loc: SE Michigan

Beautiful shot of a very interesting bird.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Tdearing Loc: Rockport, TX

Wonderful shot.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

ISO 20,000? Another reason to shoot with a mirrorless camera. Plus I have shots taken using my EF100-400 II @ 1/30 of a second that came out sharp.

angler Loc: StHelens England

Excellent shot.

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

Nice shot

Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

Nice work! Well worth the effort.

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

That is awesome!

Barn Owl

bajadreamer, Excellent post of a bird few UHHers will ever see. Really appreciate all the details of taking the image and your specifics on the necessary editing.

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

The joys of new top notch sensors and Topaz DeNoise. Wonderful shot. Sometimes it is pretty uncomfortable to get “low” but when necessary it definitely pays off!

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Your time and effort was rewarded with an excellent shot!

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Amazing what we will go to to get the shot. Beautiful bird