Rudd's Apalis - Southern Africa near endemic

[Richard Flack]

140411

Rudd’s Apalis - Apalis ruddi (near-endemic)
http://www.theflacks.co.za/birds/rudds-apalis/

This beautiful apalis can be separated from its bar-throated cousin by its dark eye, thin, white supercilium and green tail (without any white outer feathers). It is considered a “special” bird to see in southern Africa, where it is a near-endemic species and found in low lying thornveld and sand forest thickets.
I was super happy to get a decent photograph of this pretty bird, within walking distance from our chalet, at Bonamanzi Game Reserve.

Location: Bonamanzi Game Reserve, KwaZulu Natal
Date taken: 23 March 2014
Photo details:
Canon EOS 7D
400mm f2.8
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/3200
F stop 4
Exposure bias 0
Lens blur to BG, sharpening for web

Look forward to your comments!

[Ian Wilson]

Hi Richard. Obviously difficult lighting and I am sure you made the best of a bad situation. The bird looks nice and sharp but your camera settings suggest you could have closed down the aperture some more to get a bit more DOF on the tail or is it twitching?. I also wonder if you can get a little more contrast out of the white throat - it looks a bit 'hot' - I would try shadow/highlight adjustment. Nevertheless, a good effort.
Cheers, Ian

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Richard, I would add a luminosity adjustment layer just to soft & help the brighter parts, using a mask in Layers will help you control and target areas or you may wish to just do a global adjustment, but either way it helps. With that SS I feel you could have gone for more DoF i.e. f/9. If it was mine, I would soften the darker leaves, bottom centre in the BKG, my eyes get drawn to it, so blending it would help I feel.

TFS
Steve

[Daniel Cadieux]

Although I'm OK with the dof it is nonetheless a good idea to stop down a bit if you have enough light to do so and a distant enough BG to not render it too distracting. Lots of nice details here, and a good perch. Congrats on the "special" bird, especially so close to your home!