Collared crows and hi-key photography

You may not see many of these interesting and intelligent birds....The collared crow, also known as the ring-necked crow or white-collared crow. I have seen one in Sai Kung, but generally they are plentiful in Mai Po.

Here is one, shot into a bright overcast sky, for a hi-key photo effect. It is important to correctly expose for the bird, and override the camera settings....otherwise you end up with this photo below, which was too dark, and then when you pull up the shadows you get a lot of chromatic noise...without any true blacks left, and a dull photo.

Look left now....