Playing with Horny the Hornbill

[Jay Gould]

While waiting for all of my new toys to arrive I am slowly going through the images I shot after receiving my 40D in July. All of the images have simple LR 2.3 processing; I am most interested in comments about the subject and composition, and of course any other helpful hints or critiques.

Horny was shot at an island in West Papua at a dive resort - Papua Diving/Sorido Bay. Horny, while not captive, is a resident at the resort. I just love his eye; we were playing when I took the shot. I will post another of Horny preening.

Canon 40D
HH EF 24 - 105 @ 47mm
1/160 @ F/4 with 40D fill flash
ISO 800

[Juan Aragonés]

Jay the bird is very tight in the frame and the fill flash is veru intense to my taste (the bill look a bit overexposed and the BG very dark). Tho out of focus hand in the left is distracting and adds nothing to the image.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Other than what Juan had mentioned, I would probably have cropped much tighter to emphasize the eye area. It looks magic.

[Jay Gould]

Hi Juan, I was kinda expecting these types of comments; it is what I needed to hear to learn.

There is almost no cropping; would this repost work better? I have lightened the BG while trying to hold the dark in the eye - remember I am "playing" in LR; I haven't yet graduated to PS. The hand is OOF due to the shallow DOF at f/4.

Akos, would you crop even tighter?

This is an amazing forum; people on opposites sides of the world online at the same time! Buenos dias Juan; G'day Akos.

Cheers, Jay