Yellow-faced Honeyeater take off

Yellow-faced Honeyeater taking off from one of the bird baths in our garden, 10 March 2014. This is another capture made with the high-speed flash set-up described in my Striated Thornbill post a few days ago.

Canon 7D + 300 mm f/2.8L II + 1.4x III extender, three 600EX-RT flash units, RS-80N3 shutter release, Gitzo 3532LS tripod with Kirkphoto King Cobra gimbal.

Pre-set manual focus and manual exposure settings, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO 125, 1/8 flash power.

Processed in DPP: adjust brightness, shad/h'lights, saturation, sharpen, RAW-JPEG. PS Elements: remove two flash highlights from eye, crop, downsize and output sharpen.

Thanks for looking, critical feedback welcome.

Nice use of flash! Great HA and details! I would consider cloning out those pieces of grasses/twigs in front of the bird as well as the water droplet that's clipped at the right edge of the frame.

This a super cool image. The water droplets are awesome, and I am glad there weren't any obstructing the eye. The pose is just amazing, and you did a good job with the flash. For printing, I would probably remove the larger twig in the FG.

Really like the spray of the water droplets. Good use of the flash.

I love the concept and execution of the image. Super well done, and an appealing result. I agree with the twig removal suggestions.

The water action is superb...I like how the droplets cover the whole frame. Fairly serendipitious that there weren't any big droplets covering the face/eye area(!)

Love the action in this. great job with the flash set-up.

Fantastic action shot Ian. Love it. Well done :S3:

Very cool. Love the colors and the even water spray throughout the frame. Sharp and clear. Lucky that the face is exposed from the water well. Well done!

Killer stuff Ian. You're posting some of the best bird bath/pool shots I've ever seen.

Thanks everyone for your generous and helpful feedback. I have noted comments about editing out the light-coloured needles in the foreground and will keep a lookout for this issue in subsequent posts captured using this set-up. Regards, Ian.