BOAS - Little Bee Eater

[Steve Kaluski]

Rarely do you get a clean BKG when out 'in the bush' and often the subject will fly if you get too close, but here I just had to take the opportunity and within a few frames, the Bee Eater was off. Dorian, after your posting I thought I too would share an image with a minimal backdrop .


Thanks to those who posted or viewed on the last posting.

Steve

Subject: Little Bee eater (Merops pusillus)
Location: SA - Londolozi
Camera: Canon EOS-1D X MK
Lens:EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4x III HH
Exposure: 1/2000s at f/8 *ISO800 EV +1
Original format: Landscape, very slight crop from the top
Processed via: LRC 9.4 & PS2020

*No NR required due to very low ISO

[David Roach]

Love the spotlight effect and the simplicity of this frame. TFS

[Brian Sump]

Steve, beautiful species here. Never seen one of course, but quite a looker. I'll make my way to SA one day, if for no other reason than to enjoy that smooth accent ;-)

Other than the light being steep, which you dealt with pretty well, I just feel the bare stick lacks adequate character and the limbs coming up in front of the little guy take away unfortunately.

I like the effort on comp and would have loved to see the perch with foliage.

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

The bird is very attractive. I would be tempted to crop in from the left, just past the vertical twig, with a small crop from below. It would leave the bird at one of the intersections of a ROT composition grid, which although not essential by any means, often works nicely.

Cheers

Randy

[Kurt Bowman]

Hi Steve, love the color and exposure on the bird. I also find myself wishing for a bit less of the perch and would crop this past the vertical twig. I just don't feel keeping the bare perch adds anything here. Still nicely done!

[William Dickson]

Hi Steve....I really like the pose and colours on the bird...lovely colours with great detail and sharpness....I would agree with Randy regarding the perch....it just feels that there is too much oof branches which takes my eye away from the beauty of the bird. The BG colour looks great, and yes I would have taken this shot as well.

Will

[Dorian Anderson]

Glad I was able to inspire. I will be making my trip to Africa at the end of this year - assuming I'm vaccinated by then - so I'm sure I'll have an interesting time generating clean frames within the bush foliage. I like the small-in-frame approach, even if the
perch is busy and partially OOF. Randy's suggestion of cropping right of the large, left twig is interesting, assuming you have the detail on the bird. Lighting and color on the bird are very nice.

[Steve Kaluski]

OK Gentlemen, what I have learnt over theses years is once you get the frame you want look for further options and so within the few frames capture, I managed to get another tighter in, to avoid cropping and retaining IQ. Here I did remove one branch pointing down.

I will be making my trip to Africa at the end of this year - assuming I'm vaccinated by then - so I'm sure I'll have an interesting time generating clean frames within the bush foliage.

Where are you going, irrespective of having the jab you have to be extremely careful Dorian, I'm not kidding, as you currently don't have the restrictions we have in the UK and things are very relaxed, Africa is a whole new ball game. I get almost daily reports back from SA and it's extremely serious there, I've shelved two trips for the faceable future, even with Private guiding and the jab. Watch for Malaria areas - Malarone (anti-malaria tablets) is the best, albeit you start a week prior and two weeks after, but don't skip taking it after you get back, malaria is not fun. Also, remember to take two back-ups (two 6GB ex HD's) and mirror them both, download each time you come back as power is not a certainty and you will shoot more than you ever expected!