Rainbow bee-eater

[greg cowle]

Juvenile rainbow bee-eater on the hunt. Quite close to me so not enough DOF for the wings, probably also some motion blur, but sharp on the body, and I like the pose as he turns towards me.
420mm, 1/3200, f6.3, ISO1000.

[Randy Stout]

Greg"

Agree with your assessment . The head angle, wing spread, exposure, all good.
From a compositional standpoint, I might be tempted to try a bit off the left, with corresponding amount off the right. I wouldn't be afraid to go a bit more square, so the wings are working one diagonal of the frame, and the body/ head line works the other. Personal taste really.

Cheers

Randy

[Bill Dix]

Lovely flight shot, with open bill and perfect head turn. I don't mind the motion-blurred wings. I'm OK with the comp but Randy's suggestion sounds like it's worth a try as an alternate. I might use a low opacity brush to soften or remove the whitish blob to the right of the bird.

[David Roach]

Love the pose, super sharp eye, colors, BG and composition. Congrats. TFS

[John Mack]

Nice to see the dorsal view of this one. Nice green background. Love the colors on these guys.

[gail bisson]

Hi Greg,
I saw the road sign to Wonga Beach when we were in FNQ! I wish I had known you lived there. It would have been fun to meet up.
Lovely bee-eater and your self critique is spot on.
Love that clean BG and wing spread.
If mine, I would do another round of NR and smooth out the yellow stalk on the RHS of the bird.
Very nice and would love to have this in my files,
Gail

[greg cowle]

Thanks all for the comments, appreciated. I have attached a square crop per Randy's suggestion, I think it does work nicely. Didn't adjust the background, just did the crop. This is shot over a cow paddock with quite long grass, the white blob I think is just a stalk.
Gail: this was a few mile from Wonga Beach, in Upper Daintree.

[David Roach]

Thanks all for the comments, appreciated. I have attached a square crop per Randy's suggestion, I think it does work nicely. Didn't adjust the background, just did the crop. This is shot over a cow paddock with quite long grass, the white blob I think is just a stalk.
Gail: this was a few mile from Wonga Beach, in Upper Daintree.

Yep, this crop improves the image for me. And an awesome image it is. TFS

[Alex Becker]

Late to the party but this is a real beauty. I love small birds in flight, and this is a real winner of a shot. Nice BG, details, pose, and colors. TFS