I Don't Want To Talk About It.

[Bill Dix]

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill pair, from Botswana.

D500, Sigma 150-600C @ 550mm; ISO 1600, 1/2500s @ f/7.1 manual.

[William Dickson]

Crystal Clear.. Beautiful detail on the birds and perch. Fab BG. Love the POV and DOF.. You couldn't ask for a better pose. Front, back and both great looking HA's. One of your best Bill.

Will

[John Mack]

Funny title suits this well. Nice detail and i like the perch. Good background as well.

[Colin Driscoll]

Good one Bill. Love the poses and the environment, and IQ is spot on. You really jagged it with the head turn.

[Dorian Anderson]

This is a really sweet frame Bill! I love the color and front/back views of these amazing birds. There is a bit of posterization going on
in the BG that you might want to sort out since this shot is otherwise so good. Your caption in appropriate too!

[Isaac Grant]

This is excellent Bill. You could not ask for the 2 birds to be better positioned and posed. Details are nice as is the background. Don't sweat any background issues on these green backgrounds. They are super hard to keep 100% once compressed. I'm sure the full res is fine. I think you could warm this up and brighten it a touch more and it would really make this even better. This one rocks!

[Daniel Cadieux]

That's pretty darn cool! I love the alternate poses, and the title does cause one to chuckle. I imagine you masked the birds and perch to further blur the BG? Great stuff.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Nicely done, Bill. Like one front other back, and head turns as well. Good depth in all the colors. Well captured.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Bill, great pair here, and really great so clean in the open. Lovely poses from both, good DOF throughout the image, and both well exposed. Was this on a dull day, as these guys have lovely long eye lashes, and they normally cast shadows across their eyes.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. Yes, Daniel, I did mask the subjects and run some blur on the BG, and remove a few distractions. Working on a dark green BG is of course asking for trouble with posterization, as Dorian and Isaac have noted. It is there, but doesn't look too bad to my eye.

Stu, the light was dull, as it was on much of our trip. Sometimes we cursed the dull and rainy sky, although sometimes it worked to our advantage. On the last several days of the trip, the bright African sun came out and we found ourselves wishing for some clouds.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Nice image, love the front and back poses. Good exposure and detail, pure background. Thank you for sharing, Bill.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Joe.

[David Salem]

Holy cow, I must have missed this one! Awesome shot Bill. If this were a target species then I would say you hit the jackpot! Male and female, opposing poses, great soft light, beautiful perch and a killer BG. What The $%&#. If I didn't know any better, I would swear this was a setup. Very nice Bill

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Dave. No, certainly not a setup. Unless you consider the whole Okavango Delta a giant setup.

[David Salem]

I know this isn't a set up Bill.
The way I interpert the phrase "if I didn't know any better" means I do know better, Like "it's too good to be true".
Probly the way I should have said it is, "the shot looks so good, it almost looks like a set up".
However you slice it, it's Killer frame!