Southern Carmine Bee-eater

[Chris van Rooyen]

I usually approach the Carmines from a boat, but this time round I stalked them from the top of the river bank. They were so engrossed in their foraging along the river that they hardly noticed me. This image was created with the last rays of the sun, the background is the sand banks and water of the Zambezi River in Namibia.

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Date/Time: 2007:10:13 17:02:37
Shutter speed: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Av
Exposure compensation: +1/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 640
Focal length: 200mm

[Grady Weed]

This is a very nice image you have here. Having never seen one this is a special treat. The curved wings in gives me a sense of frozen in flight. You are very fornuate to have the opportunity to take this image. I appreciate the share.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Chris,
Stunning bird! My only nit is to take some off the DK blue on top....maybe half... as it is dead space.......and I love tight crops. Question........I own the Mark lll and was wondering why you didn't push the ISO a little higher to perhaps get more speed.........as I think your f stop is dead on?
Would love to have this in my collection,
Roman

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great pose, light and eye contact. I would also crop a bit off the top and might try to lighten the shadow on the neck.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Nice action,light,pose and colors,nice work!

[Tony Whitehead]

Another great shot, Chris. I agree about cropping a bit off teh top. I like how the shadow on the neck echoes the shape of the cheek markings

[Marko Matesic]

You are incredible :) everything is spot on...as usual ........

[Geurt Bloem]

Well done Chris, no nits as I know how difficult these characters are. You are doing very well with your MIII, are you happy with it in comparison with the 1DM2 you had previously?

[Del Cockroft]

Incredible colours. A well framed image, good exposure and BG.

[Alexander Koenders]

Niets aan toe te voegen. Wat een heerlijke kleuren en magnefieke compositie.

[Steve Ashton]

What a stunning bird. I love this image. Are you sure this was taken on a MKIII. I thought they didn't focus to well.

[James Galletto]

Beautiful.

[Ed Prete]

really a very nice image. because of the wing position and direction of the head, have you considered taking a tiny bit off the top? either way works for me, really nicely done.

[James Salywoda]

Stunning shot of this beauty.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys, I take note. I find that since the mirror fix was done on my MKIII, that it is at least as good as my MK II was if not better. I think the predictive focussing is actually a notch above the MKII in my opinion.

[Dean Ingwersen]

Breathtaking...again. I'm running out of superlatives for your images Chris. Fantastic stuff.

[Caroline Darmo]

Breathtaking...again. I'm running out of superlatives for your images Chris. Fantastic stuff.

My thoughts exactly.

[Gus Cobos]

Very well done Chris...:D I like it just the way it is. Colors are vibrant and the detail is excellent..

BIG CONGRATS...:D:D:D

Gus...:cool: