Pretty in...

[David Roach]

EOS R6 RF 100-500 @500 f8 1/1000 ISO 3200 HH. Manual EXP, cropped for composition from vertical frame

Early midday sun filtered through thin clouds for spotlight and shadows. This beauty was preening right in the mid back. As I often do, waited for the head to raise and hit the shutter as it did. This frame had good HA with feathers still fluffed. This wild bird habituated to stocked pond at local Botanical garden.

Thanks, as always for valued comments and help on previous posts.

[dankearl]

Pretty contrasty David. Midday is a tough time to do bird photography.

[Steve Kaluski]

A real belter of an image Mr Roach, the colours ping out, the pink/red against the green backdrop is awesome and having the strands of dark in there too makes for something different.

Yes, there is more to pullout in the bill and if you have it, a bit more content to the LHS so as not to clip those feathers would I think help. However... it does need some more selective sharpening David and this always must be done at the final cropped/output size.

TFS
Steve

[Paul Burdett]

Love this one David. Great pose, the colours really do pop, great feather detail and a nice contrasting background. I really like the lighting here..doesn't look overly harsh to me. Well done my friend.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice but not thrilling :). The very great probability is that this is not a wild bird ...

with love, artie

[Brian Sump]

David, personally I like the dramatic light and the contrast against the bkg in this one. It is not too extreme in the shadows. I might consider shifting the subject right.

However, the head appears to have some motion blur and does not appear in focus to me. I'm afraid it would be a delete for me :-/

[John Mack]

I would sharpen some more. Looks good though other wise. The feathers on the back are nice.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Love the composition and colours and especially pose from the subject, killer BG! Yes to some more selective sharpening.Lovely work David, a pleasure to view