European Bee-eater

[Mark Booysen]

The European Bee-eater has eluded me for approx 2 years, I eventually managed to track them down during their summer migration to South Africa -this was taken in Cape Town in Dec 2014.
The hours of waiting and crawling to get this shot was so worth it which was further complicated due to the birds being even more skittish than usual due to the fact that they were flying in and out of their tunnel nest feeding their young various insects - a dragon fly in this case - most importantly I did not want to upset the birds in any manner.

Technical Info:
Canon 70D
400mm 5.6L
SS 1/1250
AV 6.3
ISO 320
Handheld

This is my first post on your amazing forum, so look forward to your advise & tips as I am very much an amateur/weekend photographer.

[Raybel Robles]

Welcome to the forum! and a great photo to start with! Love the colors of the birds, sharp subject and a perfect head angle showing the dragonfly perfectly. I would only be tempted just to crop a bit tighter and lose a bit of the negative space around.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Mark, welcome to BPN!! Quite a lovely and colourful subject you present us. I love the pose, the thin perch, the prey item (it looks like it is praying for mercy!), and the light. Your patience and perseverance truly paid off. My only wish is for the subject to be larger in the frame.

Looking forward to more from you:S3:

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Mark - welcome to the forum.

Started with one of my favourite birds - well worth the waiting for. Classic pose with the prey - sometimes the males will sit for a long time with the one prey item waiting to offer it to a lady in return for sexual favours.

Very nice as presented although I agree with Daniel, it could be a bit larger in the frame. Also, I think the colours look a little over saturated - they are very colourful, but not quite so, if I remember well.

Thanks for sharing and I look forward to seeing more.

Gerald

[Ian Wilson]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on making such a good start - what a wonderful subject. Good feedback from other members - I look forward to seeing more of your work. Regards, Ian

[John Robinson]

Welcome. All been said- grand shot. Some soft diffused clouds in the back would be nice but you can,t do anything about that. others love plain backdrops.
Cheers
John

[William Dickson]

Welcome Mark Beautiful image to start with. Lovely colours on the bird and the prey moves it up a notch. As Daniel said, a closer view of this bird would be nice.

Thanks for sharing

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Mark and welcome i am sure you will enjoy your stay here. You have a classic shot there, and the light could not have been better on the dragonfly either! If you haven't cropped too much I would suggest slightly more cropped image and I would lift the darkest shadows just a tad.

[Mark Booysen]

Hi, firstly thanks for the warm welcome and secondly for the comments/suggestions.
I have tried a tighter crop, hope I have not lost too much IQ and is more in line with what was suggested.
Jonathan, I am useless in PS so have no idea how to lift the darkest shadows - all I know is how to sharpen and crop my images - shocking I know, but hopefully I can learn a quick trick or two from the experts here!