Road Runner Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

It was quite an experience to see the road runner at the Horse Shoe Bend of the Colorado River near Page, Arizona. The canyon is very deep, an the river is "guarded" by the red walls. The red runner was not scared of me at all, and was running around and enjoying the views with me...It was somthing magical to see this bird at this magnificent place...until that day I have seen the road runners only as a silver pins made by Navajo Indian Jewerly makers...

marula, pboehringer, trinko, PJE, sined, antek, jlynx, Henryk_Bilor, Emiel_Skyfreak, maloutim, frieda has marked this note useful

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pboehringer (770) 2006-10-08 23:14

I just saw recently a road runner running (what else?) in front of my car while I was at 70 MPH. He still managed to get away - boy are they fast! This is absolutely fantastic ... a load runner with this colorful (!) tail and the Horse Shoe Bend as a backdrop. That is an one life time picture!!!!!!
Great moment, Danuta!
Tfs, Peter

PJE (19591) 2006-10-08 23:48

Hello Danuta.
The only Road Runner I have actually seen is on Bugs Bunny cartoons. So this is what they look like. Very nice capture from this gorgous place. Now all you need is a photo of the Coyote and let the fun begin! Good shot!

trinko (2940) 2006-10-08 23:49

i don't know how big the original was but there's way too much river and too little bird. i did a workshop to suggest some potential changes to colors and sharpening but i didn't crop since this is already a small shot due to the trekearth limits. you could crop a bunch of the foreground, left and right and still show the river canyon walls and the bird. as it is the birds head doesn't look right, might be motion blur. anyway it's still a nice capture of an elusive target. the tail feathers are very colorful.

the only remaining question is where is the coyote? :)

[workshop] [compare]

sined (4513) 2006-10-09 0:49

fantastic picture! i'm very happy to discover this bird in his environment, tail colours are the same than the river and the banks !
thank you very much Danuta
Denis

Fis2 (47675) 2006-10-09 5:55

Witaj Danka!
Tym razem trochê ¿ycia w tym niesamowitym terenie. Ciekawy ptak w kadrze, mi³e kolory i dobra kompozycja.
Pozdrawiam
Krzysztof

antek (1286) 2006-10-09 13:13

Wspania³e zdjêcie. Ten ptak na tle ¶wietnego krajobrazu - piêkne.
Dobra ostro¶c i kolory.
Pozdrawiam
Antek

jlynx (11382) 2006-10-10 9:17

Witaj Danusiu,
Niezwyk³y widok w czelusc kanionu otoczonego martw± czerwona ska³a. Ptak i resztki zieleni na dnie kanionu to symbol si³y zycia. Piekne i zarazem grozne miejsce.
Pozdrawiam bardzo serdcecznie,
Jurtek

Henryk_Bilor (20377) 2006-10-13 5:47

Hello Danuta
Lovely picture of this bird with great background. Excellent perspective and colours. I`ve seen road runner only being hunted by the coyot in a famous cartoon ;).
Pozdrawiam

Emiel_Skyfreak (2976) 2006-10-24 21:07

Where's Willy E. Coyote ? :-)

Nice photo, good colours and nice POV too.
I think the DOF could be a bit wider, maybe a smaller diafragm would help, F8 orso. Or apply some extra sharpening. I like the overview we have above this roadrunner, looking to a river below. Really nice.
Thanks for sharing.

I agree with the WS too, the changes are nice, good work WS editor!

kmarscher (2883) 2006-11-12 9:13

Great shot of the road runner in his natural habitat! You composed this nicely, with the diagonal line of the Colorado River, the subject just off center, and that wild, wilderness sense of place. Bravo for the shot and the climb!

fallan (1860) 2006-11-22 19:56

Seeing these birds is treat enough. To photograph one shows fortune is smiling on you. But to find one willing to pose in front of such a background? The WS does improve on the colors, but unlike the others, I think I would have preferred a large aperture to blur the background and further emphasize the bird. Great capture.

LCannon (2776) 2007-02-05 8:39

What a gorgeous photo! I love that I can see the background river so well, the colors and composition are wonderful. I love the diagonal line of the river behind this interesting bird. I've never been to this place, looks like it's definitly worth a visit, well done.

maloutim (4239) 2007-02-12 15:36

Beautiful shot that makes this picture of the Grand Canyon really different from what we are used to see. It must have made your day!
What's incredible is that the colours of the tail remind us of the colours of the rest of the picture: pink, blue and green.
Well done!
Cheers.
Marie Louise.