American Coots are very common (everywhere) and most people consider them nuisance birds. From a photography point of view, they are pretty bland. Usually when I photograph them, I try to capture one or more of three things-the red eye, the great feet, or action (they fight a lot among themselves). This image captures none of the above very well, but the bird is sitting on one of my favorite perches at Santee Lakes, so I had to push the shutter. Shot with Canon R5, 100-500 mm lens + a 1.4 extender at 700 mm. SS 1/1000, F/10.0, ISO 2500, EC of -.7 (to prevent blowing out the highlights on the beak). Processed in PS, with bird being brought up and warmed up slightly and BG being brought down. Saturation of eye and legs brought up and few specular highlights in BG cloned out.
kpmac wrote:
Nicely composed.
Thank you. I cropped this to 16:9 because it will be viewed on a dedicated TV I have mounted on the wall that shows our travel and bird pictures.
joecichjr
Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA
bajadreamer wrote:
American Coots are very common (everywhere) and most people consider them nuisance birds. From a photography point of view, they are pretty bland. Usually when I photograph them, I try to capture one or more of three things-the red eye, the great feet, or action (they fight a lot among themselves). This image captures none of the above very well, but the bird is sitting on one of my favorite perches at Santee Lakes, so I had to push the shutter. Shot with Canon R5, 100-500 mm lens + a 1.4 extender at 700 mm. SS 1/1000, F/10.0, ISO 2500, EC of -.7 (to prevent blowing out the highlights on the beak). Processed in PS, with bird being brought up and warmed up slightly and BG being brought down. Saturation of eye and legs brought up and few specular highlights in BG cloned out.
American Coots are very common (everywhere) and mo... (
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Lovely shot of a sassy old coot 🤎
Nice shot. And not at all boring to those of us who never see one in person.
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