One-footed Landing

[Bill Holsten]

This juvenile male Green-crowned Brilliant attempted a one-footed landing on the red passion flower, lost his balance and in the process knocked most of the pollen off the flower. Photographed earlier this month in Costa Rica on a workshop with Doug Brown and Greg Basco.

Canon 5D Mk III, EF 70-200mm f/2.8 at 145mm, 1/200", f14, ISO 400 on tripod, multi-flash setup. Bird was attracted to flower with injection of sugar water.

Comments welcome and encouraged.

[Loi Nguyen]

Lovely colors and details. The lower shutter speed works well here. TFS. Loi

[Doug Brown]

Very natural lighting (if I do say so myself :w3). Love the pollen and the nice detail. I'd prefer better wing position, but the pollen carries the day! Enjoyed having you on the workshop Bill!

[Karl Egressy]

Nine landing, excellent sharpness, nice colors, Bill.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

The greens in this photo are just amazing. The lighting looks very natural here, something that I know (from experience) is not easy to do.

The pollen flying makes the image for me. If I had to nit-pick (and I guess that's part of the critique), I just wish the outer wing was separated from the flower. Not much you can do there, though.

Miguel

[Marina Scarr]

This is killer, Bill, and the wing position works for me. The flying pollen brings this to another level.

[Frank Schauf]

Great timing, great action.