About the Image(s)

Jabiru Stork, Pantanal, Brazil. It was roughly mid day when we came across this male jabiru stork gathering sticks and drinking on the riverbank. The images taken on the ground are very difficult to process due to the merging of the sticks with the BG! He then took off, flew behind some trees, then emerged at the nest.

We had noted the nest, where the female was moving sticks to suit her, so knew to prefocus there in anticipation of his arrival. I'm always bothered by images where the incoming bird is shown against a pure blue sky, so I chose one where the feet were behind part of the nest. This also brought the bird into a similar focal plane with the female, and allowed much of the nest into focus as well.

The harsh mid day light near the equator presents a major challenge in shooting black and white subjects. On the plus side, it allows you to use a very fast shutter speed and also somewhat bring up the f stop, without needing a super high ISO.

Shutter speed: 1/2000 sec
Aperture: 7.1
Exposure mode: Manual
Exposure compensation: -2/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 320
Lens: FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
Focal length: 459mm

This image has not yet been entered into competition.

Lillian