Southern Carmine Bee-Eater

[Stu Bowie]

If this was a duck, it would have fitted the theme perfectly. I captured this in the Kruger National Park from my car, and positioned myself that the Bee-Eater was against a distant mountain, and not against a plain blue sky. I have purposely placed the BE centrally, as I wanted to show the end of the perch on the left, and to the right, the perch was getting a bit busy. Taken late afternoon.

Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 300mm F/2.8 +1.4 TC = 420mm
1/1600
F/6.3
ISO 800

Hand held from the car.

[Ross Taylor]

Hi Stu,

I really love what you have done here with the composition! The background really compliments the bird's colors. The perch looks almost 3-D to me.

I will suggest one area to clone out: Just to the right of the bird there are 3 branch stubs. The middle one which is darker seems to have a bird dropping on it (white color).

Thanks for posting this inspiring shot Stu :)

Ross

[Lorant Voros]

Well chosen pano crop, great perch, nice bird and super IQ. Bird gave you a good head angle and nice catch light in the eye. TFS.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely image, perch, light, BG. I am good with the perch as is. The subject works well closer to the middle here bc you need that entire super perch in the image.

[Jonathan Ashton]

As soon as I saw it I knoew the composition had been carefully decided. The lighting and colours are absolutely tickety boo, gorgeous shot!

[Karl Egressy]

Great pose, background and amazing colors, Stu. If it was a Duck, it would be one of the winners for December.

[David Salem]

I love the colors, pose, details, perch and especially the comp. This is worthy of a nice pano print in the hallway:S3:

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the perch, pose, exposure, BG and composition. Excellent image Stu!

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks a stack for all the feedback everyone. Always appreciated.

[keith mitchell]

Stuart you have certainly ticked all the boxes with this magnificent image.

Keith.

[William Dickson]

Great looking perch Stu and the bird aint too bad either :w3 Love the colours on the bird and what a great pose. All finished nicely with that great BG

Will

[Grace Scalzo]

Beautiful colorful image, Stu. unconventional comp but well thought out and it works perfectly.

[Satish Ranadive]

Gorgeous image. Elegant composition. Rest as usual great.

Regards,
Satish.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

A winner, Stu. I like everything about the image. A most beautiful bird on a great thorny perch and a lovely BG.



Geoffrey