Speckled Mousebird

[Gerhard Weldhagen]

The mousebirds were in dense thorny scrub sunning themselves in the early morning rays with me patiently waiting for one or two to emerge from the twiggy mess and get a clear shot. Mabalingwe Nature Reserve, South Africa, Canon 1DIV, EF 300 f2.8II, 1.4TCIII, 1/320, f7.1, ISO 100, beanbag rest. Critique welcome.

[Doug Brown]

Hi Gerhard. I like your sharpness. The thorny perch is nice, but there's a bit too much of it IMO. Also your shooting angle is fairly steep. I'm not a big fan of ISO 100 for bird photography, particularly with a body as capable as a Mark IV. There's very little improvement in noise but you give up 2 stops of shutter speed or aperture. With the Mark IV, my base ISO is 400.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This is a new bird for me, never seen or even heard of it. I agree with Doug's suggestions, and also if you had time moving right a bit would have given more separation between the long tail feather and branch.