Little Bee Eater

[Steve Kaluski]

Taken early in the morning not long after leaving camp (6.50am), where there were an abundance of these wee fellows darting about capturing various insects in the cool of the morning. Trying to isolate one against a half decent BKG took a bit of time, but just watching where they flew too, I managed to get a few frames. This one had just ruffled his feathers.

Thanks to those who viewed or posted a comment on the previous thread.

Steve

Subject: Little Bee eater (Merops pusillus) on a stick
Location: Botswana
Camera: Canon 1DX MKII
Lens: 500f/4 plus 2x MKIII HH
Exposure: 1/2000s at f/9 ISO2500 EV 0
Original format: Portrait, very slight crop (flipped for presentation)
Processed via: LRCC & PSCC2015.5

Note: 'banding' behind the tail feathers is OOF grass, not bad cloning.

[Bill Nuttall]

Perfect for me Steve

my only minute nit would be the OOF area at the top of the perch

[keith mitchell]

Steve I have watched and studied these Bee-Eaters and must say that I think this is about perfect, the colours are spot on,pleased you managed to find a nice bit of BG to fit it onto.Excellent.

Keith.

[Joseph Przybyla]

About as good as it gets, beautiful bird, lovely image. Thank you for sharing, Steve.

[John Whaley]

It is a beautiful image.

[Brian Desjardins]

Hi Steve, What a beautiful shot and bird, amazing colors and details, just awesome ! , Thanks for sharing


Brian

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks guys, glad you like it.

Currently just doing a load of prints and it looks pretty cool at 16 x 12 and the MKIII extender just delivers fantastic detail.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Steve, lovely pose, and the Bee Eater is tack sharp. Colours spot on in the early light, and F/9 ensured you covered the DOF. Killer BG, and I like your choice of the vertical comp.

[David Salem]

Nice to see you posting in avian Steve. This one looks fantastic and I really like the details and colors you captured. The vertical comp is perfect too but I might think about loosing the perch above the body if you are so inclined. Well done

[Steve Kaluski]

Cheers Stu.
Hi David cheers, it's more manipulation than I would normally consider, however, in this instance it works very well, thanks for the RP, good call.

[keith mitchell]

Hi Steve,Davids repost is interesting and think maybe taking the top of off the perch as some merit ,but still prefer your original post of the bird itself which I did not think could be improved ,of course we are all different how we see birds and perceive how they should look.

Keith.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow those are about the best colours I have ever seen, the details are equally excellent. The pose is good, yes a tiny head turn would have been even better, but that is one super image.
I note f9, did you blur the uppermost segment of the perch or was it that much OOF?

[Steve Kaluski]

Cheers Keith.

[Steve Kaluski]

I note f9, did you blur the uppermost segment of the perch or was it that much OOF?

Hi Jon, all in camera, the stick was going away from camera at an angle, so all natural DoF. Yes these we birds are awesome in colour, but I still would like to get a decent Carmine, but I feel Stu B is more likely to get one sooner than me.

Good SS and avoiding cropping the **** out of an image just 'Pays Back' every time, crop tight IQ just goes and you are throwing away all that data.