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Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Merops hirundineus, Kingdom: Animalia (Animals), Phylum: Chordata (Vertebrates), Class: Aves (Birds), Order: Coraciiformes (Rollerlike Birds), "Family: Meropidae (Bee-Eaters)", Swaelstertbyvreter, Schwalbenschwanzspint Gabelschwanzspint, Abelharuco-andorinha, Guępier ā queue d'aronde, Zwaluwstaartbijeneter
Nikon D300
Nikkor 200-400 F/4G ED-IF-AFS VR
ISO 800
F8
1/3200
AP
Matrix metering
-0,7 EV
17h29PM
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2754/...300600fa_o.jpg
Harsh light and a few too many branches IMO...but man what colours! Bug is a nice bonus to have here, and I like the bird's pose.
Superb eye contact and great pose with wonderful color and detail. The bee-eater is so beautiful that the branches just fade away. We can not always get them to pose where we would like them too. An awesome capture and big congratulations Callie.
I really like the bird. The pose and details look very nice to me and as the other mentioned the colors are very pleasing. The prey is a plus. If it is within your ethics it might be worth trying and three sticks in the background. Thanks much for sharing!
Boy this guy is electric! Love the HT and prey item, BG and sharpness on the bird. While I love the birds colours and think they are spectecular I also think you overdid the post processing in some areas on the breast and throat. If this were mine and I understand if it is not within your personal ethics I would clone out the twigs in the BG, add some canvas on top and to the left (so that the eye is on a 1/3 2/3 intersection) and would go back to RAW and redo the post processing, because this is such a killer shot it is totally worth the extra work IMHO. Nicely done and congrats!!
Yes, branches are a heavy distraction on an otherwise brilliant image, with great colors and awesome behavior. Diagonal formed by bird's pose is good for composition.
Hi Callie, super pose showing off his catch. Colours look good, and I like the BG. Yep, we cant always ask them where to perch.
Thank you, all for looking and commenting, I appreciate. This was the only bee-eater with pray who obliged in 9 days to allow me near him, and yes, he would look great on another tree. I can clone out all the branches and agree that it will look better less cluttered. However, I just wanted to show the full Monty, as I plan to post a mugshot of the same bee-eater with the grasshopper.
Krijn There is no special PP on the bird and its colours, what you see is what it looks like, it is iridescent past belief, as is some of out kingfishers. The sun's light just enhanced the colour intensity.
Regards
Callie
Hi Callie,
Thanks for your explanation! I have seen this bird before, and I wasn't suggesting that there was anything wrong with the colors of the plumage. But there do seem to be some hot areas underneath the black face stripe and I think some parts of the breast. IMHO it would be a shame not to bring this back to your RAW conversion program to work on those areas, because it is such a beautiful shot otherwise!
Kind regards,
Krijn
Hi Krijn
I never shoot RAW . . . gasp, choke . . . :D but I have ordered Capture NX 2 in anticipation of getting the PC images looking like the Camera screen images. If the PC could display as well as the camera, 95% of my photographs will need no rework. Been told NX 2 can fix it, but will wait and see. Anyone using NX2 that can point me in the right direction to get a training CD etc? There might be advantages in RAW, and I will try it. But coming from shooting slides for nearly 30 years, it is hard to put my trust in a RAW file that can be changed etc. It does feel as if I let the camera do the work;) But i will rework this photo and try and post, once I get my Paypal problem out of the way.
Best regards
Callie
Very nice pose with prey, Callie. RAW is definitely worth exploring. Not sure why your pictures should look so good on the camera and not on computer - have you got your monitor calibrated and colour space correctly set up? Shooting jpg locks you in to a fixed tone/sharpening processing by the on camera computer which won't be ideal for all subjects. RAW lets you adjust colour temp, contrast, saturation for each image individually. To use a slide analogy using the camera settings in jpg can leave you in a position of shooting portraits with Velvia when other emulsions may have been kinder to skin tones.
