New Zealand Kea hunt

[danielklaer]

Hi guys,
I have a keen interest in parrots (both in the wild and in captivity) and maintain a website on the subject. Most of my wildlife photography trips are really aimed at seeing/photographing a new species of parrot and I just get everything else I can along the way

Anyway I just got back from a holiday in N.Z. where I wanted to see and photograph kea in the wild, a large and VERY intelligent New Zealand parrot. As it turned out bad weather and extremely bad luck resulted in only seeing one individual in very poor lighting. Here is the best image I was able to get (there were others with better exposure and a little sharper but the background was less favorable). The story about finding this one animal is actually pretty interesting but I will write it up as an article for my website rather than bore you with it here!

C&C welcome on all images. Would love some post processing tips

And here are some other images of N.Z. wildlife from along the way.

There are many more.

 

[danielklaer]

Critique welcomed. Particularly with what I could do post processing wise.

 

[runnah]

1,3,4 & 6 seem underexposed.

#1 is my favorite. They water drops add a lot of dynamic-ness.

Are 3 & 4 kiwi birds? I thought those were super rare?

 

[danielklaer]

1,3,4 & 6 seem underexposed.

#1 is my favorite. They water drops add a lot of dynamic-ness.


Are 3 & 4 kiwi birds? I thought those were super rare?

Thank you Runnah for your reply

3/4 are a Weka, a type of rail. They are rare (though not as rare as Kiwis). I heard kiwis at night but pretty hard to find one.

Thank you for the comments on the exposure. I wondered about this as I tend to like the darker look if it was darker when the photo was taken (3/4 and six were very late afternoon on overcast days. 1 was in very shaded area on an overcast day) but as I have my monitor brightness right up I wonder if I often overdo it. I will have a play with number one in lightroom and re-post tomorrow some time.

1 is my favorite image (favourite subject) but unfortunately was the most poorly exposed raw.

 

[danielklaer]

Any further C&C? Particularly with what was done in post? I deleted the old ones from my flickr I realise. Didn't know it meant they would dissapear off here too