satin bowerbird in the smoke

[avkomp]

this one looks like a female as opposed to a juvenile male.
still hazardous smoke outside the house from the fires, but at least our house not threatened anymore.
took thru the window when you could actually see the birdbath
this bird came up ok thru the glass where others have not. unsure why really.
one unexptected issue was what looked like noise in the shot. noise reduction sorted it, but
original shot not underexposed or anything and only 1600 iso.
smoke caused funkiness seems to be best explanation. d5 600f4 1/250 f5.6 iso1600 full frame cropped to portrait.
I noticed that the smoke resulted in about 1EV under exposure as far as the meter is concerned.
no smoke here today so far. first day since around late december. have not been able go go anyway to photograph stuff.
roads closed and smoke, lucky the birdbath provides some respite

[Isac]

Good to see the smoke clearing Stephen. We suffered it yesterday with a bad fire 40kms away and fuelled by strong SE winds. You should take more photos through the glass, this one seemed to work out rather well - nice and sharp as usual. Are you going to remove the branch from its back? I don't think it will harm the image or the perspective.

[RossW]

Wow Stephen what a shot. I think the smoke adds to the photo.
Boy I have a lot to learn.
Cheers
Ross

[avkomp]

thanks Ross, the lack of light kills the details in the plumage. the lovely greens etc kinda look dark.
I reckon I got some proper pix this afternoon in decent light, may have to put similar pic up to show comparison. dont post too many pix in general though

[avkomp]

we have been under emergency watch with the fires. ember patrols, you name it. scary stuff with 30m flames coming at us too. no chance for pictures really, also, with the smoke you couldnt even really see stuff, and if you could, it was hard to breathe. this pic was just to keep me sane a bit. overall I didnt think it was that good a pic so will probably leave it be, I was enjoying the clear air this evening, so I should have some better pix in better light.
this pic is typical of what it looked like out the door. like the gates of hell. cocked this pano up cos I left the lens hood on and it vignetted a tad, but you get the idea. fires 2-3km away at some stages. when it wasnt like this we had 20m visibility at max. and you didnt want to be going out there more than necessary. only really out there looking for embers.

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day Stephen

Only you are worried about any supposed cockup ... for me as a first-time viewer of the above pic - all seems okay
What I am seeing is your record of a bluddy awful day with dramatic coloured skies from awful fires ... and to me the vignetting at the edges makes it better to view
=if= you wanted to visit the centre area to lighten it up - the next step could be a 40" pano on the wall of the local cafe one day

As to your original pic - on my screen it looks really great. Yep - Isac's suggestion is okay, but as is, that camera / lens combo you are using is certainly producing excellent results

Phil

[HansE]

Continue to humbly create master pieces.

[avkomp]

jeez, thanks for the kind words