White-fronted Bee-eater

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Taken from a river bank below which these birds are nesting.

1D MKIV
600mm f/4
ss 1/2500
f/8
ISO 1600

[Ken Watkins]

You do not get much better than this, I am deeply envious. :cheers:

In response to yesterday's post I mentioned the difficulties caused by the general mayhem at nesting sites, I think it bears repeating here.

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Thank you for viewing & commenting Ken. It is much appreciated.

It certainly is difficult getting these erratic & fast movers in the viewfinder & getting them in focus is an equally big challenge. The keeper rate on these little ones is extremely low.:confused:

[Pieter de Waal]

Gerrie you said it getting these guys in focus is a major challenge especialy with background affecting the auto focus. Was this auto focus or preset manual ? Well done with this one I like the spread wing position and fanned tail and of course the insect is a bonus. Were these taken from a hide ?

[Dave Barnes]

Another great capture Gerrie. As you say not easy to capture, only 2 or 3 keepers for a days work.
Great challange and a lot of fun and frustration.
Maby a bit of NR on the tail feathers?

[Karen Summers]

beautiful shot very well caught

[Scott Frye]

Pure eye candy -- nicely done

[Tim Munsey]

fantastic pose, fantastic bird, fantastic image.

Tim

[Morkel Erasmus]

I can only echo that this is superb Gerrie! maybe another round of slight sharpening on the head/eye? is this a big crop?

[Randy Stout]

Gerrie:

Tremendous pose, fine colors, bee, all good.
Agree with Morkel on the sharpening.
Light angle well off to the left causing some shadows, but it still works! A tiny bit of fill flash would have been interesting here.

Very well done. Congrats.

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

And you said you didnt get any;) Good show of the wingspread and fanned tail, and his catch a bonus. Cool complimentary BG. Well captured Gerrie.

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Thank you for viewing & commenting everyone. It is much appreciated.

Pieter, this was taken with pre-set manual focus. The Autofocus simply cannot lock on these fast moving birds....I tried.;)

Morkel, this is close to full frame. Cropped from landscape to square & cut a cm from the bottom.:cool:

[Arthur Morris]

Beautiful bird and superb pose and colors. The prey item is a plus. To my eye it could use a bit more fine feather detail... The only COMP problem is the merge of the bill tip with the leading edge of the far wing.

[Haim Ziv]

My favorite bird. Great pose and I love the spread wings. :cheers:

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Gerrie,

A very nice image. Love the pose. I agree with Arthur on the bill tip / far wing merge. Otherwise love it.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Nice posture, good sharpness, perhaps a bit of motion blur around the head? Great background! Noise on the bird is notable, but not too distracting.

[RAM MALLYA]

Lovely action captured here

[Harshad Barve]

You do not get much better than this
TFS