Bee-eater with prey.

[Tom van den Brandt]

This photo was taken in France where I photographed the Bee-eater for 2 days from a little hide tent. There was a colony of about 50 birds and I photographed them during 4 sessions of 4 ours, 4 ours in the early morning and 4 in the afternoon. They are such wonderful birds and it was a great pleasure to observe and photograph them.
Here the butterfly was tossed up before eating.

Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 500mm
Iso 500
F 8
1/500sec

Cheers, Tom

[Bill Dix]

Great moment captured, and spectacular colors. Good pose facing you. Looks like the focus was on the breast, so the head isn't quite as sharp, although some motion blur may also be at play. Nice work.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Tom , good action shot and the prey is a very nice bonus . agree with Bill re sharp bill .With hindsight you should have pushed the ISO for more SS.
Great color and tones .

TFS Andreas

[Ian Wilson]

Well done Tom, a nice reward for your patience, the butterfly makes this a special capture. I agree with Andreas and Bill. Too bad you cannot roll back the clock and have another try. Regards, Ian

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the exposure, details, action, colours and clean BG. Would love to see these birds one day. Well done Tom.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Nice one Tom! I'm not going to repeat some of the other comments - all in all a great pic and surely a keeper!

[keith mitchell]

Nit well covered Tom, you have still finished with an excellent image.

Cheers Keith.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice shot, I agree about a faster shutter speed - I have learned the lesson!

[Joseph Przybyla]

very interesting image, good behavior capture. Wonderful colors and background. Thank you for sharing.

[Randy Stout]

TOm:

Wonderful colors, action, perch.

Tech. details covered nicely above. The only thing I would add, is the breast looks a sliver oversharpened to me, getting just a bit granular looking.

Look forward to more!

Cheers

Randy

[Grace Scalzo]

Lack of sharpness noted. I'd make this a vertical, loosen up the comp a bit and rework the sharpening. I don't think you'll ever make an image that is not sharp in capture perfect, but I think that the sharpening in post could be improved .

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Tom, very well timed to capture this, as I know how fast bee-eaters are at tossing and eating their 'prey'. Colours spot on the BE, and I like the angled pose too. Nice thin perch, clean BG, and if anything, I would come in left and right to achieve more of a vertical comp. Im finding this a touch too squarish, but thats just a personal thing.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

This one is great!
Love the timing and nice light. These birds must be very fast but you had enough shutter speed to freeze it! well done.

[Shawn Zierman]

The colors of the bird and the butterfly are pretty arresting....! I really enjoy the action and the natural history of the image. +1 to pushing the iso, especially with that very fine camera body....

[mohammad reza shahab]

Hi Tom,
Wonderful BG, colors, action, perch.
well done.

[Tom van den Brandt]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I really appreciate it.
There is a bit of motion blur indeed so next time I shall push up the ISO

Cheers, Tom

[David Salem]

Great looking frame Tom. Love the colors and the action in this. The overall techs look good and I love the color too but the SS could have been higher.
I shot for years with your exact combo and I never went below ISO640 very often.
Loos like you were pretty close, and I can understand wanting to shoot at f8, but if there is even a chance at action or quick movement, I would think about shooting at a minimum of 1/1600th or better. Just some food for thought.