Red-billed Queleas

[Glenn Pure]

Another experimental shot that isn't going to appeal to all. My aim was to use a low shutter speed to get some blur and sense of motion - but without getting one big blurry mess. Birds pictured are Red-billed Quelea coming in to roost and taken at Naumutoni in Etosha National Park, Namibia. There must have been thousands of birds at this roost site right next to the lodge waterhole. Interestingly, these are believed to be the most common wild birds in the world with an estimated population of about 1.5 billion. They are members of the weaver family. I've cropped a fair bit to get this: maybe a third of the frame pixels in this shot.

Thanks for looking and any comments you wish to share.

Technical: Canon 80D with EF 100-400 MkII at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/80 sec, f5.6, ISO 2000. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. NR applied globally. Sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool) after final size reduction simply to restore the level of detail in the original size image - not attempting to create sharp outlines here.

[greg cowle]

I like to try this type of experiment, not often successful... If I crop off the light part at the top I like it more, makes it seem more endless.
Greg

[Joseph Przybyla]

I like the image. I have tried blurs with single birds when waiting for light using a shutter speed of 1/15 while panning with the bird. I read about blurs in one of Arthur's books. Amazing to see so many at one time, it must have been a wonderful trip to Africa. Thank you for sharing, Glenn.

[Alex Becker]

I like this Glenn. I always like seeing something new and although I haven't been wildly successful with panning shots its nice to see. I like that we can make out a number of the faces pretty clearly, with a couple in the center relatively sharp in order to 'pin' the frame down. Colors work pretty well here too. TFS

[William Dickson]

Late on this one Glenn. Absolutely love it. Would make a fab looking large canvas.

Will