Southern Carmine Beeeater

Taken on the Chobe River,Botswana
Camera :Canon 1 D Mark 1V
Lens: Canon 300mm f 2.8
ISO :500
SS : 1/2500
f /5

Nice light, cool pose, and good eye contact. I like the BG too. The perch could be better, and I might selectively sharpen the body a little more.

I know all to well, what a difficult bird this is to get a decent image, the carmine is always difficult to expose.

Very interesting wing position, but I agree with Doug that a little more sharpening may help.

Hi,

I know how easy it is to over-saturate and over-expose reds (and yellows), so I wondered if this was part of the problem here. I have tried a re-post, with the red breast desaturated then sharpened a little, some sharpening haloes around the head removed, some Noise Ninja applied to the whole image, then a usm at 20-60-0. I don't know if it's any better - it's a gorgeous bird, that I would love to see some day, and I have no problem here with the perch or head angle etc.

Richard

Jan, good pose wth the wing stretch, and I like the eye contact. Still need one of these in my files.

One of my favourite African species Jan, lovely light & pose here.
Some slight USM and desaturation of the reds would bring this up very nicely.
TFS