My new favorite Mourning Dove takeoff posture.
Mourning Doves are among the quickest medium-sized birds at takeoff so almost without exception I have little to no chance of capturing them during takeoff or early flight. But yesterday morning in the west desert I somehow got lucky.
1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
I got one shot as this dove was taking off from an old, weathered post – in the next photo in the burst I cut ‘him’ in half. I like almost everything about the image, including his wing position, the light angle, the background, the good detail and his flared tail. Especially his beautiful, flared tail.
If I was forced to be picky about something in the image it would be the shadow on the back of his neck. But since I’m not a picky kinda guy, I won’t complain about it.
Like me, I suspect you’re wondering what that metal doohickey is on top of the post. It appears to be some kind of metal plate that was attached to the post long ago. At some point one end of it became slightly raised from the post’s surface. I didn’t even notice it until I was processing the image.
I wish that plate wasn’t there but to me it’s no big deal. The dove’s takeoff posture, and the fact that I was quick enough on the trigger to capture it, more than make up for the metal plate.
Ron
OTHER USERS BOUGHT THIS!!!
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