Eurasian Roller - Masai Mara, Kenya

[Karthik Ram]

Shot with a Canon 7D / 100-400 at 40mm

Settings : ISO 400, F5.6, 1/1250

This was roughly a 25% crop of the original shot.

http://kram.smugmug.com/Africa/Masai-Mara-Feb-2012/i-WS2WFtX/0/L/IMG1349-L.jpg

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi there Karthik, welcome to BPN!! You've got a very beautiful bird here, and it chose an OK perch to pose for you. Nice background too. The biggest issue here is the light angle that is coming from in front of you thus rendering your subject in shadow. Almost always best to put the sun behind your back, this way your subject will be better lit and its colours in full display. I would also have cropped differently to place the bird more to the left of the frame with more room in front to "look" into, and perhaps less below to minimize the perch.

Looking forward to more from you!!

[jack williamson]

I love the perch and BG, the bird is sharp and colorful, too bad about the light direction.

Jack

[Frank Schauf]

Nice perch, BG and sharpenes.

[Karthik Ram]

Thanks Daniel for the feedback. Will try a different edit with more space for the bird :)

I left a slightly larger part of the perch as the leaves from it go across the bird - and it looked a little awkward with very little of the perch. Will try a few edits on that as well.

[Karthik Ram]

Thanks Jack and Frank for your comments.