Southern Screamer

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Southern Screamer (Chauna torquata) Esteros del Ibera, Argentina Velvia, 500mm AF handheld (from a small boat).

-- Steve Kaufman (skphoto@xyz.net), March 30, 1999

Answers

Give us a break, Steve - this bird is not real. Don't know what kind of Photoshop wizardry you pulled to concoct this beast, but its time to fess up. Seriously, a beautiful, captivating portrait. Handheld from a boat, even - bravo.

Peter

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), March 30, 1999.


OK, you caught me Peter. It's a guinea hen, common pigeon, and domestic chicken pasted together... no seriously, it is one of the stranger birds I've seen. It's goose-sized, and often in small flocks. Ibera Natural Reserve (where this was photographed) is one of the most spectacular places I've visited; it has 350 species of birds & 85 species of mammals. It is accessable only by boat, and only small flatbottom boats are practical. The vegetation is all on floating masses, and will not support the weight of large bi-peds carrying tripods.

-- Steve Kaufman (skphoto@xyz.net), March 30, 1999.

A Southern Screamer? I take its a loud sounding bird as well as a loud looking one. The thought of coming across of flock of these is alittle frightening (it appears bigger than goose size)...a real 'star wars' alien this one.

This is a fine -classic- portrait, the only nit-picky thing I can point out that might make it better (or different in a good way) is if there were elements of the bird's environment in the background verses the blue sky. An environmental portrait would help visually by putting this guy in some kind of context. As it is, this would make a seriously eye-catching magazine cover.

-- Hans Buchholdt (hans.buchholdt@sealaska.com), March 31, 1999.


Another version of this Southern Screamer shot with an 80-200 showing the habitat taken a few minutes before/after the posted image may be found HERE. In my opinion, the background for this particular bird wasn't very good, and there were branches in front of the bird as well. So, I used the 500, and shot wildly away handheld, trying to get a tight, clean image. I like portraits, but I also do shoot lots of "environmental portraits" as well, just when it's my choice of what gets shown, it'll usually be the tight portrait.

-- Steve Kaufman (skphoto@xyz.net), March 31, 1999.

Mando Bizzarro Birrrd! This guy looks like he had a bit too much to drink the night before. Nice job. jj

-- Joe Johnson (joseph.johnson_85@gsbalum.uchicago.edu), April 06, 1999.


Excellent job. It is very hard to handhold the 500mm AF on solid ground, not to mention from a small boat. A minor point is that there is a bit too much sky on top; I would crop a little off.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), April 06, 1999.

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