A hard act to SWALLOW !!

[Marc Mol]

I found this Black-headed Heron whilst we were photographing Crown Cranes flying in to
the saltpan in the Sth Luangwa Nat Park- Zambia.
It was trying to swallow WHOLE this Scrub Hare it had caught and finally succeeded
on it's fifth attempt!
................something you don't see everyday ;).

Nikon D2Xs
Nikon 300 f/2.8 VR
ISO 100
f/4
1/1000s
300mm

http://africaddict.smugmug.com/photos/332746243_sqqG3-XL.jpg



C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

[Arthur Morris]

Hye Marc, You gotta be kidding. This is an amazing capture but the image is not without serious flaws. Just got back from Photoshop. Not only is the white neck toasted, but many of the grass stems are showing as over-exposed as well. Did you use the suggested exposure without compensation? How are you converting your RAW images?

Lastly, asuming that you were in a vehicle, you needed to move it forward while turning to the left (if possible). This would have eliminated the two stalks in the foreground and allowed you to parallel the subject.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great behavior capture. Moving to your right would have prevented several problems as mentioned by Artie. I also find the shadows on the bird's plumage a bit distracting. Keep them coming!

[Marc Mol]

Hye Marc, You gotta be kidding. This is an amazing capture but the image is not without serious flaws. Just got back from Photoshop. Not only is the white neck toasted, but many of the grass stems are showing as over-exposed as well. Did you use the suggested exposure without compensation? How are you converting your RAW images?

Lastly, asuming that you were in a vehicle, you needed to move it forward while turning to the left (if possible). This would have eliminated the two stalks in the foreground and allowed you to parallel the subject.

Hi Arthur

Thanks for your comments, I use ACR & CS3 for my RAW conversion. We had NO room to move with this image as this was the only open patch on the marsh that had any sort of opening to get a semi-decent shot.
Also, yes my highlights are blown and tried the best to recover what I could.

Cheers
Marc

[Robert O'Toole]

Marc,

Crazy good action and subjects but obvious flaws in the image, all mentioned by Artie.

Robert

[Arthur Morris]

[quote=Marc Molloy;114582]Hi Arthur Thanks for your comments, I use ACR & CS3 for my RAW conversion. We had NO room to move with this image as this was the only open patch on the marsh that had any sort of opening to get a semi-decent shot.Also, yes my highlights are blown and tried the best to recover what I could.

Hi Marc, YAW and thanks for getting back to me. Do you know how to use the highlight alert feature in ACR??? If you do so and move the recovery slider (I think I have that right but I do not use ACR) until the red warnings stop flashing and then convert the image the highights should be fine. You should be able to do that unless your exposure was miles off...