Arrow-marked babbler

[Jonathan Ashton]

Taken in Letaba region Kruger park, a head turn would of course been nice, but not to be.
Canon 1DX Canon 100-400 L IS II + 1.4TC III @ 560mm
ISO 1600, 1/1000 sec f8
ACR + PSCC

[Steve Kaluski]

Hey Jon, that's a cracker of this subject, superb detail and that eye is bang on, excellent work. Like the low POV were you out of he car, I assume so? Agree with you, a slight head turn would have helped likewise having the foot all in view, but hey, that's nature. Personally I might have been tempted to blow some of that nice 'brown' back in, not a lover of the green vegetation, even go 16x9, or 10 format. I might kill the blue in the beak, leg and tail, WDYT???

Nicely done.

TFS
Steve

[annmpacheco]

Hi Jon, what a great looking bird and sure the head turn would have been wonderful, never the less, lovely details and BG, would like a cleaner bottom so foot wouldn't be hidden, love that eye Jon, TFS

[John Mack]

Low angle is nice. That is a neat looking eye on this guy. The prey is a plus. Like you said a head turn would have been nice but this is what you were given at the time.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice details and light, agree about HA and wish the ground where he was standing was a bit cleaner, you can probably clean it up a bit in post as well

TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks everyone, much appreciated. I wondered about tidying up the base but I thought I would gauge your comments first.
Steve the image was taken from the car window, from what I recall the road was a little lower than the surrounding woodland. Regarding the blues, I must confess I didn't check but a good idea to remove. The greens stay for me I am trying to keep presentation as close as practicable to reality.

[Steve Kaluski]

The greens stay for me I am trying to keep presentation as close as practicable top reality.

No worries Jon.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Jon,

I am quite jealous, saw a great number of Arrow Marked Babblers last week in the Kruger but had no chance to get close to them:)

This is super special, lovely detail on the bird and nice pose, catch is a bonus!

Eye is superb. Overall colours look great but good suggestion from Steve to have a look at those blues on the beak, feet and tail feathers.

Wonderful sighting and capture, thank you so much for sharing,

Kind regards,