Results 1 to 17 of 17

Thread: Eastern Spinebill and honey-bee at the pool

  1. #1
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    895
    Threads
    94
    Thank You Posts

    Default Eastern Spinebill and honey-bee at the pool

    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    The Eastern Spinebill is a member of the honey-eater family. They love to dive into the water and bounce right out, all in a few tenths of a second. They seem to delight in making as big a splash as possible and dive in repeatedly until thoroughly wet, then retreat to a safe branch for a long preening session. The bird in the image has just emerged from the water and is on the way up, sharing the airspace with a honey-bee which came to the pool for a drink. This is another capture in our garden using the high-speed multiple synchronized flash set-up described previously.

    Canon 5DIII + 300 mm f/2.8L II + 1.4x III extender, three 600EX-RT flash units, RS-80N3 remote shutter release, 3532LS Gitzo tripod, Kirkphoto King Cobra gimbal.

    Pre-set manual focus, manual camera settings, f/14, 1/200 sec, ISO 125, 1/8 flash power.

    Processed in DPP4: adjust shad/h'lights (+1,-1), saturation (+1), luminance NR (0), chrominance NR (2), sharpness (3), crop, RAW-TIFF. PS Elements: select bird and bee, surface blur background to reduce file size, remove two flash h'lights from bird's eye, downsize, sharpen, TIFF-JPEG.

  2. #2
    BPN Member vishaljadhav's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Pune , India
    Posts
    1,711
    Threads
    94
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Wow action image
    sharp where it needs to be, the drama captured is nice
    the bee and water drops make it more special

  3. #3
    BPN Member William Dickson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Fife, Scotland
    Posts
    7,883
    Threads
    1,115
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    This is great Ian. Amazing capture of the bird and water droplets. I like the blur on the wings which brings the image alive, the sharpness of the head is perfect. I would love to be able to do a set-up like this. I bet the wee bee got a fright . Well done

  4. #4
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Lincolnshire UK.
    Posts
    4,951
    Threads
    187
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Ian you really have got this off pat, really like this ,excellent detail and clarity ,Bees a bonus, love it!

    Keith.

  5. #5
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    South Africa
    Posts
    14,858
    Threads
    1,235
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Certainly is a cool moment - lovely timing and the bee adds to the shot.
    I am not personally a fan of this "flashed" look, especially on the droplets, but I know this technique works well with smaller fast birds like hummingbirds. I think perhaps toning down the apparent sharpness of the droplets will help the eye to focus better on the bathing bird?
    Morkel Erasmus

    WEBSITE


  6. #6
    Lifetime Member Marina Scarr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Sarasota, FL
    Posts
    10,347
    Threads
    403
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    What a great action shot, Ian. Love the water droplets and the insect caught in the frame is a huge plus. I am good with the droplets as they are but it may look even better with sharpening only the bird. I would try dodging the green grasses in the front which look flashed to give the BG & FG an all around more even look.
    Marina Scarr
    Florida Master Naturalist
    Website, Facebook

  7. #7
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    324
    Threads
    78
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Ripper shot - well done on the very sharp action!

  8. #8
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Posts
    1,997
    Threads
    86
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    If ever a bird photograph showed a bird enjoying itself...this is it! Love the facial expression...could take or leave the bee as it is not in focus, to me it's just sort of a bee "photobomb" :), or maybe it's the icing on the cake...can't tell for sure. What I do know is that it's a very engaging image...best of the recent birdbath images from you, and all have been very good.

  9. #9
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    2,193
    Threads
    467
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    The pose, action and amazing detail is so amazing that I find the OOF bee distracting and adds nothing to the context of the image. Great work.

  10. #10
    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Centurion, South Africa
    Posts
    21,362
    Threads
    1,435
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Hi Ian, great action captured here, and love the HA of the bird emerging from the water - great eye too. I do like the colours of this species, even though we cant see all of him, and the honey bee adds interest, as if the bird is there to catch him.

  11. #11
    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    26,311
    Threads
    3,979
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    What a joyous pose!! Sweet as can be, and a perfect head angle too. Love the splashing water drops and undulating water surface. I'm not a huge fan of the wasp...I'd have liked it much better had it been on the same plane of focus as main subject. Keep them coming...loving this series.

  12. #12
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Posts
    1,119
    Threads
    63
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Another great shot from the series, Ian! Brilliant use of flash as usual! Love the pose, BG, colors and water splash! Well done!

  13. #13
    Forum Participant christopher galeski's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    ENGLAND LANCASHIRE
    Posts
    5,106
    Threads
    360
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    its all been said ,a great image,love the water dropsand the birds not bad either,agree with Alen's comment about the bee,but it s a magic image,well done.

  14. #14
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Pune, Maharashtra, India
    Posts
    7,409
    Threads
    469
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Spectacular action captured. Beautiful pose with nice HA.Love the open beak, beautiful red eye and flash of water.

    Regards,
    Satish.

  15. #15
    Lifetime Member David Salem's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverside, CA
    Posts
    6,664
    Threads
    276
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Another really cool and unique image. The water spray and the clear bird are perfect. I too dont think the bee adds much to the image. Very nice.

  16. #16
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Sunnyvale, CA
    Posts
    88
    Threads
    23
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Stunning shot and what a beauty! One of the best water splash shots I have seen. Great exposure with flash, excellent details and superb action.

  17. #17
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    895
    Threads
    94
    Thank You Posts

    Default Eastern Spinebill and honey-bee at the pool

    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Thanks everyone for your generous feedback and helpful advice on this image. One of the points of interest is the oof bee that Shawn amusingly suggested had "photo-bombed" the shot. I was in two minds about including the bee and I probably should have removed it before posting. However, today I decided to select the bee and play around with a few sharpening options and was surprised to find that the 'remove lens blur' and 'remove Gaussian blur' tools in PS were reasonably effective, though not perfect. In this repost you can see the improvement although probably not quite enough to save the bee. Cheers, Ian.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Web Analytics