Hoopoe

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/6.3
1/2000
ISO 800

One from my recent trip to Portugal, where I must say, was really worth the trip.

Will

[Glenn Pure]

Hey William, I thought these were African birds! Not so. Your background is excellent and colours and tones on bird well handled. I'm not in love with the manicured grass though. Also, the bird's head looks a trifle soft to me but I always struggle with these downsized images so it might just be me. Framing and composition look good.

[John Mack]

Neat looking bird here like the low angle.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Will, glad to hear the trip was a successful one and I like the low POV and side on profile here, however I'm with Glenn, the overall capture does look a fraction off. Is this a big crop?

TFS
Steve

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Will, great low perspective, and the colours look natural. Love the upper BG, and I would maybe take a bit off the bottom. Before reading the others, i did feel the head is not as sharp as the wing.

Why go all the way to Portugal to photograph these guys, I have them in my front yard. :w3 Looking forward to more from your trip.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the comments guys. Hi Glenn the manicured grass is actually the 18th green of a gold course. It's the only place I could find them. :S3: Hi Steve, yes it was a fair sized crop, but I liked the POV and BG. I have attached another image of the same bird. I got closer to this one. I must visit South Africa some time Stu :S3: Portugal was really good, where I photographed lots of birds I hadn't seen before. I found the light throughout the day to be too bright. And it wasn't easy persuading my wife to go out at sunrise and sunset to photograph birds. But, I got my own way on a couple of days.

Will

171687

[Stu Bowie]

Excellent detail here Will.

[Mike Poole]

Really like the second shot here Will. The first is a stronger composition but is a little soft, excellent detail on the second

Mike

[Glenn Pure]

William, thanks for the additional explanation. I like the second shot you've posted. IQ looks a lot better to me and I'm a sucker for 'non-standard' poses too, so that aspect really works too. I think the composition works for the new shot too although I always struggle with this type of shot (where the bird is looking one way and body pointing the other). The tone and colours on the new shot also look even better than the OP to me.

[Steve Kaluski]

The new post supersedes the OP, well done Will. :cheers: