Roller (Coracias garrulus)

[Juan Aragonés]

One of my favourite bird species in Spain, the eurasian roller. This is a male in a perch near the hole where the pair breeds year after year. They are just arriving from Africa. At the left of the bird there is a white colour wall reflecting the light of the sun so I needed no fill flash Hope you like this image and feel free to made your critics.

Nikon D2X AFS Nikkor 300VR +1,4XTC ISO 125 f4 1/1000s -0.7EV manual exposure matrix metering

[Arthur Morris]

Fabulous bird and image as we are coming to expect from you. Love the colors and the sharpness and do not mind the light U-LC which works for me. Needs a bit more room above or a bit less below. (It is very rare that an image works with more room below the bird than above...) Llastly, I would absolutely get rid of the tiny bit of broken branch below the undertail coverts (unless it is actually a feather (but it looks to bright for that...)

[Nikolay Staykov - shotlandetsa]

Superb image and quality! It's one of the best I've ever seen of this bird.

[Philip Lombard]

A pretty bird, good exposure, I agree needs more room on top.

[Dan Brown]

Very nice! I agree with Art, the little broken branch needs to be cloned out. I would like to see this as a vertical with more room at the top and bottom and much less room on the left side, but not too crowded. I wish that I were setting in a blind near the nest hole right now! This species is fabulous in flight, with the amazing blue wing patches!

Dan Brown

[Juan Aragonés]

Fabulous bird and image as we are coming to expect from you. Love the colors and the sharpness and do not mind the light U-LC which works for me. Needs a bit more room above or a bit less below. (It is very rare that an image works with more room below the bird than above...) Llastly, I would absolutely get rid of the tiny bit of broken branch below the undertail coverts (unless it is actually a feather (but it looks to bright for that...)

Thanks guys for the nice comments on this image and for your interesting suggestions.

I processed this image carelessly and paid not too much attention to the process (very late in the night in front of the monitor...) and a result the image is not as good as I would like.

I think is very sane to criticize your own work and I think that instead of the obvious need for more room at the top (I totally agree with your comments in this regard) and I will correct that issue adding more canvas from other image from the same series. Also, I think that the image is slightly oversaturated, just a little bit to my taste.

Arthur I am not english fluent and I try to do my best to understand some of the terminology that many of you used in the posts but, sometimes, is really difficult for me. Oh my god :confused:.... I do not have a remote idea about the meaning of U-LC.:D Please, help
This site has a strong educational power and is a fantastic learning tool for a lot of people from many different countries and using different languages (that is great!). Many of you use terms like BG, OOF, IMO, BCNH.. that are an absolute mistery for the first time, non-english, reader. Many of that terms are easily understand and I find to myself using them frecuently but many other terms like the one you wrote here still a mistery for me.

Regarding the composition rules I have to say that the rules needs to be broken sometimes. I love to have room under a bird perched on a branch but is a matter of taste. Of course, I appreciate all the suggestions and I try to apply them to my images to see how it works and I enjoy to do that a lot :):)

Thanks again for the input

[Gus Cobos]

Juan, I love your images, and with no exceptions on this one...:) But agree with Artie about the little twig sticking just below the tail; and yes...a tad more room on the top of the frame...:D CONGRATS JUAN...keep them coming...:D:D:D

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Juan, I am glad that I did not miss your questions!
U--L-C = upper left corner, L-R-C = lower right corner, (etc...)
O-O-F = out of focus
IMO = in my opinio
IMHO = in my humble opinion
BCNH = Black-crowned Night-Heron

I agree that the rules are just guidelines, and I too like room under the perch, but in most cases (as here) you need at least as much room above the bird as below.

Keep up the great work.