[Lew]

I've had this laying around for over a month and haven't any idea what to do for it. It's a bird from St Louis Zoo. I've had no trouble finding wild ones, but he was there and screaming at me...so. It's just straight out of the camera jpeg resized. Any thoughts or should I place this in manipulation. Or just forget it and accept it for what it is.

[Markulous]

It's got a great expression! But you're facing an uphill struggle to remove bars or the suchlike (the white feathers on the neck have burned and the feet are chopped off) so I'd use it as a learning exercise for the next opportunity

[Lew]

I had pretty much came to that conclusion. I have mixed thoughts about captive or caged native birds anyway. He was just there and very active. I just got a teleconverter. I'll just have to be patient and find a more expressive one in the wild. I found a breeding pair and nest on my last trip out. As the trees leaf out, I'll need my boat to shoot them as they'll be hidden otherwise. Hopefully my 70-300 with converter will enable me to reach them from the boat. Thanks.

[Charlotte]

Have to agree with Mark. Good luck for the next one Lew, it'd be great to capture an expression like this in the wild

[Lew]

So far most of the birds in the wild just sit there. I got fairly close to the one I called slightly ruffled. After about 50 shots I intentionally tried get him to react and fly. All he did was contort himself, ruffle his feathers, stare at me, and slowly smooth back down. Short of throwing rocks at him, I couldn't get him to do anything. They get boring just siiting there.

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by Lew

I have mixed thoughts about captive or caged native birds anyway.

I'm the same - went to a couple of zoos, bird centres and I'm not keen on the whole captive thing. Even photographically, once you've learned how to get a shot (which I'll admit is why I went in the first place), there's little challenging (for me) about getting a lion with it's mouth open behind a fenced-in enclosure!

Originally Posted by Lew

Short of throwing rocks at him......

Must remember to take them with me, next time I go out: rocks!

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted by Markulous

... there's little challenging (for me) about getting a lion with it's mouth open behind a fenced-in enclosure!

You could always get in there with him for a bit more of a challenge

[Lew]

At least someone would get some good shots.

[Markulous]

I know we're meant to lay down our lives for our art but that's one bite too far!