Little Bee-Eater

[Gabriela Plesea]

This image was taken in September 2012 in the Kalahari. It was to be discarded because the subject seemed a little out of focus to me. This is a second edit, not sure whether it is worth keeping or not. Not a heavy crop, some blurring of the background, selective sharpening of the bird, luminance, cloning out some branches at the bottom to give more space to the bird.

NIKON D3S
Nikon VR 500mm
1.4 converter
ISO 400
1/2500s
F6.3

Wishing you all a great weekend,

Gabriela

[gail bisson]

Hi Gabriela,
This is definitely a keeper.
The head and eyes are plenty sharp and you have a nice amount of wing blur.
Pretty impressive technically to get this very fast incoming flyer sharp. I would not have thought 1/2500 would have been enough SS.
I think the strong point of the image for me is the composition and the included thorn bush. Lovely BG.
I first looked at this image with the black BG (as opposed to my usual default of BP light) and it really makes this shot pop.
I would be tempted to clone out the little bit of ?foot that is just below the bee eater's right wing.
I think this is a terrific shot. Well done,
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent dynamic pose, love the colors and BG. focus seems a bit soft to me or perhaps due to lacks of shutter speed (I would def go to ISO 800 and 1/5000sec) but it is a challenging subject for sure

TFS

[dankearl]

I like this a lot.
I like the blurred wings, it makes the very focused stare pop more for me.
Nice work getting this.

[Robert Holguin]

Stunning shot!!
Love the incoming pose, I really like the blurred wings a lot, and excellent comp.
Well done.

[PhilCook]

Very sharp face on this, the eyes are excellent, blurred wings add a sense of movement. Liking very much the composition with angled wings and retaining the bush on the left ....enviable photo Gabriela

[Marina Scarr]

This is a keeper for sure! The head and eyes are sharp enough. The pose is awesome, and I love your choice of composition with the sticks on the left to balance the frame.

[Robert Kimbrell]

Very cool shot, The banking pose works well for me here. I think the bush also works well in this shot. Thats a keeper for sure.

[Loi Nguyen]

It's an interesting bird and dynamic pose for sure. The blurred wings convey motion, but i wish more of the bird head in sharper focus though.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Good morning everyone, and I must admit I am so humbled by your comments-I do not have any other shots of these little guys flying towards the lens, therefore my dilemma whether to keep it or not. It was special though, one of those "purely by chance" images. I remember this Bee-Eater perching on top of one of the little branches you see on the left-I had no intention of shooting him in flight, they are so fast and usually fly away from me.Therefore the relatively low shutter speed. I have some lovely sharp shots of him sitting on that perch though.

Gail-you are absolutely right about the little foot-it does not look like a foot, it looks more like an error in processing. I hadn't noticed it yesterday when I was working on this. I shall take it out. I would love to sharpen the head more, but Loi, when I do this, I get way too much noise. The luminance made a huge difference, perhaps I should show you what this looked like in original, I shall quickly Jpeg it and attach.

Thank you once again for your contribution-I felt kind of "stuck" at some point with my photography, and especially with my processing, you are all helping me take this to another level. And I am learning to see things, to look at my images with a more critical eye.

PS. Do not attempt to clean your monitor, the spots on the left belong to the image, they were on my lens...