Little Bee-eater

[Bill Dix]

This little guy was captured as the late afternoon sun hit him, against a dark wooded background. Removed a few leaves.

D500, Sigma 150-600C @ 600, ISO 800, 1/2500s @ f/7.1 manual, HH; posted him small to approximate his actual size.

[Gerhard Weldhagen]

Hi Bill,

The bird stands out well with the black background and the composition looks good to me.

Cheers

Gerhard

[Isaac Grant]

Those bee-eaters sure did treat you well in Africa. Another nice frame. Details and pose with the open mouth all look good. I'm always a bit torn about these kinds of shots with dark backgrounds like this. Have some of Redpolls that I took recently in MN and am never sure if I should lift the shadows in the background or go the other way and darken them and make it more dramatic. Curious to know what others think.