White Throated Bee-eater

[Hilary Hann]

I'm no bird photographer but I tried to get a few on my last trip. This bee-eater was photographed in Meru National Park, Kenya. Not sure whether the amount of branches overpowers the bird. Any comments gratefully received.
7D; 100-400 @ 400; ISO200; f7.1; 1/1000 Manual exp

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Hilary, the bird and the branches all come together to make a nice diagonal across the OOF BG. The birds bright colour and contrast make it stand out well. Perhaps less branches would be still better, but with "only" a 400mm lens this is a good compromise. Works for me. I am predisposed to like bee-eater shots though, some of my favourite birds. Colour, sharpness and detail look good. Keep on shooting birds:S3:.
TFS
Grant

[Ken Watkins]

Hilary, we do not get these down our way, or at least very rarely.

Not to sure how they work out the name ? The White Fronted has a red throat and no white on its front, and this has a black Throat, suppose it depends on where you consider the throat or front is?

Branches may be a little messy but It does not worry me.

I think this is very worthy of a little more development.

As I seem to be doing reposts far to much lately, here is another

[Colin Driscoll]

Nice bird and well presented. Repost is an improvement- a bit of sharpening by the look of it.

[Ken Watkins]

Colin,

I agree too much sharpening, I had great trouble getting my propsed version looking OK on here.

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Hillary, a lovely Bee-eater image, sharp with good colour rendition. I am partial to habitat and do like the overall composition with the branches. Never seen one of these TFS.

[Brendan Dozier]

Great looking bird and image Hilary. Nice contrast and colors. I also like the diagonal lines of the bird and branches. Agree, a bit of sharpening helps it. Nicely done!

[Hilary Hann]

Thank you for the feedback and the repost. Perhaps I should have used more USM but didn't want to overdo it. I'll make some adjustments. Thanks.