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Nancy Bell
10-05-2010, 05:26 PM
I was photographing hummingbirds near feeders in Itatiaia, Brazil when this brilliant Saffron Toucanet flew in and landed on the railing for only a few moments. All I could do was swivel and take a few shots. I did try to capture this bird in the nearby trees for a natural perch but the light was in my eyes and the bird was nearly a silhoutte against a pasty gray sky.

Canon 7D, Canon 400 f4 DO IS, ISO 1000, f4.5, 1/200, exp. comp. +2/3

C & C very welcome.
Bryan Hix
10-05-2010, 06:04 PM
Wow, very cool bird! Not the prettiest perch, but the eye and overall sharpness are great. :)
Randy Stout
10-05-2010, 06:08 PM
Nancy:

Very nice exposure, sharp, really like the serrated detail in the bill. Yes, a natural perch would be preferred, but you made the best of what was available.
You could consider a few degrees of clockwise rotation based on the angle of the railing. I also might burn in the leading edge of the railing to further downplay its impact on the image.

Cheers

Randy
Jim Fenton
10-05-2010, 06:49 PM
Everything Randy said and what a cool looking subject!

The shadow on the right corner is a bit distracting but given the cool factor, I certainly would have loved to create this image :)
allanrube
10-05-2010, 07:05 PM
+1 on the positives people have already said. Shame the back of the bird was not getting more light.
Dan Brown
10-05-2010, 07:22 PM
An amazing bird and great capture Nancy! You did well for a grab shot! I love the colors of this bird! The BG is really nice. Too bad it wasn't on a branch!
Art Kornienko
10-05-2010, 07:27 PM
Lovely portrait and nice sharpness. Wish too for more light on the tail, touch more dof and second for CW rotation.
Adams Serra
10-05-2010, 08:30 PM
Beautiful bird Nancy!
I do recognize that railing. It is a beautiful place.
Nancy Bell
10-06-2010, 08:20 AM
Thank you everyone. This bird was a major target for my trip and it was as amazing as I had hoped. I considered cropping to just show the head since the back and tail were not to my liking, as well as the railing. But then I could not decide on the best crop and just left the entire bird in the image. Rotation is a good idea. Will do.
Harshad Barve
10-06-2010, 10:00 PM
I would have loved to see this in my files , Mighty fine
TFS
Per-Gunnar Ostby
10-07-2010, 12:42 PM
Mighty fine indeed.