{"id":134982,"date":"2023-04-30T05:20:31","date_gmt":"2023-04-30T11:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=134982"},"modified":"2023-04-30T08:07:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T14:07:31","slug":"long-billed-curlew-takeoff-and-flight-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/30\/long-billed-curlew-takeoff-and-flight-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-billed Curlew Takeoff And Flight Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I posted a single photo, taken two days ago, of a male Long-billed Curlew beginning to take off on Antelope Island. In that post I mentioned that I got quite a few flight shots of him after he took off but at that time I hadn’t reviewed them carefully so I didn’t really know what I had. Last night I looked at them more carefully and mostly liked what I saw, so today I’m posting the flight series.<\/p>\n

The first nine photos below are sequential without any skips. After that there are skips and I’ll tell you where they are and why I skipped them. If you’re not on a mobile device you can determine where the skips are yourself by passing your cursor over the image and reading the image file numbers.<\/p>\n

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This is the photo I posted yesterday of the beginning of his takeoff run up a slight slope. I’m including it in an effort to tell the entire story of his takeoff and early flight.<\/p>\n

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Still running and about to push off.<\/p>\n

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Liftoff.<\/p>\n

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The only vertical composition in the series. I really like this shot but I like a lot of the others too.<\/p>\n

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Dang, I sure wish we could see his eye.<\/p>\n

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I thought about cloning out the out-of-focus vertical green stem about to poke him in the butt. Once I noticed it I couldn’t not notice it but in the end (bad pun intended) I let it be.<\/p>\n

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As the background became further away from the bird, those vertical stems gradually became blurrier and less of a distraction, at least for me.<\/p>\n

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But the stems are about to be replaced by another distraction.<\/p>\n

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As the curlew gained elevation, a broad tan band began to appear at the top of the frame. It’s so different from the rest of the background it pulls my eye away from the bird. Maybe it bothers me more than it does you because I know what it is.<\/p>\n

It’s a primitive dirt road that….<\/p>\n

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began to take up more of the frame as the curlew gained elevation.<\/p>\n

After this shot I’m going to skip three photos because:<\/p>\n