Rainbow Bee-eater

[Colin Driscoll]

A male drying out after a storm. BG is cliff wall other side of gorge. Boodjamulla NP in NW Queensland, Australia.

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh296/MyPikkies/Other%20Birds/RainbowBeeEater040110.jpg

PP- cleaned out a few oof raindrops and cropped to suit.

50D 100-400 @ 400 1/500 f7.1 0ev iso400 HH

[Colin Knight]

I love these bee-eaters! Thanks for posting this.

Great comp and sharpness here. The BG isn't so smooth, but I don't think it's distracting at all. Looks a little hot on the top of the head.

Nicely done!

[Randy Stout]

Colin:

Very nice pose, good head angle,nice dorsal display.
Interesting perch, nice scale, spiderwebs. I might be tempted to tone down its brightness a bit, esp. on the left end where the two twigs come forward.

I might consider softening the background a bit where the 'line' comes in towards the back of his head.

I do agree that the yellows look hot on the head.

How big of a crop?

Cheers

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the composition, eye contact and sharpness looks good, too. I would tone down the perch and the highlights at the top of the head.

[Stu Bowie]

Lovely pose, and thanks for explaining the BG colour. I agree toning down the yellows and the perch will work.

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks for the comments. I had attempted to tone down the yellows and the perch but clearly not quite enough. A substantial crop- about 20% of the original which goes to show how good the 100-400 can be.