Long - Tailed Widow Bird

[Stu Bowie]

I took a drive through the nature reserve close to my house yesterday morning, and this was one of the images I came away with. Shooting through the car, out the passenger window, cant we make things easier for ourselves. I realise some of the OOF flowers in the FG may be distracting, but not much I can do about those. I have removed some of them LLC.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/200
F/6.3
ISO 500

Exp Comp +0.67
Hand held as described above

[gail bisson]

Stuart,
You nailed this one! how perfect that the widowbird is looking in the same direction as the tail. Love the windswept look and the BG. Blacks are great.Love the red epaulets.
You are like a fine wine!!...you keep getting better and better with age (or should I say experience:t3)No nits from me,
Gail

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Lovely detail and perch Stu. The clean BG also adds nicely TFS:cheers:

[jack williamson]

Fine exp, detail, and bg. I don't mind the oof foreground but if it was not there...

Jack

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

What a cool looking bird and a great job getting it from the car Stuart.

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks for the kind words and feedback everyone.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Fantastic, Stu. Gorgeous bird in a great pose. Very nice bg and I like the perch a lot (including the oof parts). Perfectly sharp as always, and great details in the blacks. Excellent!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Stu this is good , na very good! You really nailed the exposure, the only thing I would say - and I am probably biased, because I read you're comments: you have the plant on the right, now given that type of plant even though I don't know what it is, it looks like there should be more about. Now I don't know what was on the left but I kind of get the impression there should be a little something there. Don't get me wrong a great image but perhaps a little "too clean". Love to read what your reaction is.

[holger cremer]

perfect exposure of a difficult subject!
like the composition as well - due to the tail not an easy task!
over all - very nice picture !

[Robert Rommel]

Very pretty angle with the tail and head. I don't mind the FG flowers.

[Sachin Saraf]

Fantastic image Stu...Love the exposure and way the wind is blowing the hair on head...Great work.

[Stu Bowie]

Now I don't know what was on the left but I kind of get the impression there should be a little something there. Don't get me wrong a great image but perhaps a little "too clean".

Thanks Jon. In my introduction, I stated that I removed a few OOF plants on the left.:w3 I had a saved version with them in, and decided to present this version without them. You are correct, the plants are all over, so I agree, it does look a touch empty on the LHS.

Thanks to everyone else for your comments and feedback too. Always appreciated.

[Robert Holguin]

Hello Stuart. Wonderful image you have here. Wonderful background, love the pose, great light, blacks exposed perfectly, and excellent comp.
Well done.

[Jim Crosswell]

A real beauty Stuart! I like the exposure, colours and composition. You need a vehicle with a sun roof!

[Stu Bowie]

Robert, Jim, thanks for your feedback.