Malachite Kingfisher #2

[Stu Bowie]

This is the same little jewel I posted a short while back, but on a different perch. My previous comp was the standard landscape, and I received a lot of suggestions to change it to a vertical. Funnily enough, I had processed this image in vertical at the same of doing the other one. Taken in the Pilanesberg nature reserve at the Mankwe hide.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/2000
F/6.3
ISO 640

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand held

[Ofer Levy]

Lovely colours! You did very well with what looks like harsh light. Did you use a fill flash as the catchlight doesn't look natural to me. I think a slightly tighter crop is also nice.

[Sinuhe Hahn]

Lovely photo - I hope to visit that hide on my next visit.

IMO - the tighter crop does look better and fill flash could be reduced a wee bit.

Thanks for sharing:w3

[arash_hazeghi]

lovely colors and a nice pose, I would crop tighter so that the details of KF would be visible.

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks a stack guys.

Ofer, no fill flash used, and all I did to the cachlight was sharpen it. Thanks a stack for the positive feedback.:w3

[Chris Baker]

Another cracker Stuart. I too prefer the tighter crop. Sweet bird nicely presented. TFS

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Lovely Stu, really like the composition. I would also crop in a bit.

[Ishmeet Sahni]

The colors are just brilliant...I really like the pose too. A slightly tighter crop would enhance the image further, though.

[Grace Scalzo]

Vibrant and beautiful and I too prefer the tighter crop.

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

Brilliant colors, what a show off kind of guy!

Agree on the tighter crop. Like the thin perch with tight grip he has on it.

Colors of background go well with the bird.

Cheers

Randy

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Stuart, I can go either way with the crop as that BG is so sweet that I dont mind more of it...but feel that the bird is a little too close to the top. Great colors and eye level shooting angle.

agree with Ofer about catchlight looking a little unnatural..backing off from sharpening there might help.

[Satish Ranadive]

Splendid image.Beautiful colors .

[Katie Rupp]

I think this is absolutely beautiful; I love the rich, bold colors and the alert pose. I think the tighter crop looks better here for a web presentation but if it were mine and I wanted to print it, I would use your original version framed to accentuate the vertical line.

[Arno Ellmer]

Stunning capture,Stuart.The bg is very complementary.I prefer the slightly tighter crop.

[Landon Starnes]

Simply beautiful! Love the colors in the bird and that fantastic bg.

[gail bisson]

WOW Stuart! No nits from me! I like the tighter vertical. Colors are superb.
gail

[Karl Egressy]

Fantastic colours and pose, Stuart. I kind of like the thighter second (repost) image better.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice mate, love the colors and BG. I feel the space works in the 1st post. So I like it as presented

[Harshad Barve]

Simple and beautiful , excellent work bhai
TFS

[allanrube]

Excellent shot - bg is beautiful too. I downloaded the images and looked at levels as I thought the image was a bit too saturated. I reduced overall saturation by 7 to see a quick change and I like that a bit more.

I like the first crop more as the bg adds a lot to this shot imho.

95951

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all for the comments and feedback. Always appreciated.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Loved the first post !!! Just perfect !!

[Nico Steenberg]

A killer IMG Stu :eek: