Hey Everyone,

This is my first foray in Bird Portraiture. It was more than a bit difficult. This guy seemed more energetic than just about any other creature I have photographed since the Sugar Gliders. Add to the fact that the lighting was horrible in the place that I photographed the bird - lots of harsh flourescent lights. Anyway, these over-all, I was pleased.

Without further adieu, let me introduce you all to Panama the Parrot:

James,
aren't birds fun?!!!! I've shot them several times but I've never been really pleased with the results. These are very nice. As a pet portrait, these work very well.

I'm off to shoot some birds tomorrow. I'll share what I get and we can compare notes. BTW, the lighting for these is quite nice.

Jim

Hey Jim,

Thanks for the positive feedback. When I was complaining about lighting, I was referring to a few specific things. The first was that the room was filled with floursecent lighting. The second was that there were several pipes and other obstructions in the cieling. This made bouncing the flash very difficult for me. The fact that there is more shadow in these files than what I normally produce speaks to this, I believe.

I am glad that they came out, but they were work. LOL. The last image I did a little PS work to slightly re-saturate the yellow feathers on the head (specifically, I used the paintbrush tool with an opacity of about 5% to go over the areas I was not happy with) as the flash had popped a bit hotter than I like. On the finished product, you can not really tell that I had edited the file.

James,
my bird shoot yesterday was compromised by the bird falling in love with me. Sigh. Consequently, I had to shoot in the kitchen, across the kitchen table, by bouncing my 580EX off of the ceiling and back wall. If I got anything worth sharing, I'll post it later today.

I've always had "magic hands" with dogs, cats, horses and other mammals but large birds always kept their distance. Lucky decided that sitting on my shoulder and rubbing against my cheek was just too cool! And, frankly, it was. I'll have other chances to photograph these birds (the owner has one of the Rotties we bred) but this experience was pretty nice. Lucky did a lot of displays so I hope I captured something.

More later,

Jim

James,
meet Lucky! He's a very pretty Cockatoo and, as I mentioned previously, we photographed him in the kitchen because it got late (we shot 3 dogs and are putting those shots into a collage for the owner). But the owner wanted us to meet the birds so they would be more comfortable with us when we come for the next shoot. I think Lucky will be fine. I'm not so sure about my left ear lobe after receiving Lucky's kisses

Here's a shot of Lucky getting rubbed by his mom.



And here's another shot of him displaying for us.



Other technical: XT, 50mm F1.8, 580EX bounced off of back wall.

Can't wait to get Lucky under the studio lights.

Jim

These are great, guys! They are frisky, aren't they? Mostly, I believe it's because there are strange, giant men poking black shiny things at them and lights going on and off.

Only tips would be to try and include the tails in the shots, and if possible use some kind of perch so that they're more rooted, posing without running all over the place. Note that appropriately-sized perches allow a 3/4 wraparound of their feet.

Been shooting a lot of them, lately, and I do mean A LOT. I have two more shoots this week, having already had two. Tomorrow is a blue hyacinth macaw, the biggest parrot there is, and a lovebird and a blue/gold macaw. Giants. I'll post some if successful.

Very nice! Maybe I will get a try at birds some time in the future

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the input. My biggest gripe was trying to find ways to both include tails and exclude shadows. While I can do this in PS, it requires a ton of work that I would rather NOT have to do. LOL.

I can't wait to see more of everyone's parrots.

-James