Lilac-breasted Roller (South Africa)

[Dorian Anderson]

Drove past this bird in Kruger. Slammed on breaks. Turned around. Positioned client in passenger seat with perfect background.
Climbed from the driver's seat into back. Grabbed my rig. Cracked off a few frames before another car came along and scared
the bird off. That's how this 'grab' frame came to be. Not perfect, but decent given the impromptu circumstances.

I ended up with the specular highlights from my backseat angle. Can't tell if I love 'em or hate 'em!

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS R5
1/800 at f/5.6, ISO 1600
Processed in LR CC and Topaz DN

[James Babbitt]

Not sure what you could have done differently. The most important aspect of this bird are the incredible pastel colors and your image certainly does that justice.

[Kurt Bowman]

Really nice detail and colors are fantastic. Love the head turn you managed as well. I am not a huge fan of the specular highlights, but they aren't an image killer either because of their position in the frame. Nice work!

[kevin Hice]

I agree with James you caught those gorgeous colors. For me would have been nice without the highlights. But again we take what we can get. Be thankful for that. Lovely image Dorian. TFS

[dankearl]

The highlights are easy to get rid of if you want to...and you can do a much better job.
This was about 5 seconds.

dor.jpg

[Dorian Anderson]

The highlights are easy to get rid of if you want to...and you can do a much better job.
This was about 5 seconds.

You overestimate my cloning skills! I assume you did that in PS using content aware fill? I've cloned small stuff but never anything this widespread or present.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Dorian .. nice classy image of this species .
Apart from being a bit thin on the tonal front ... IMHO ... the image is very nice .
I do not mind at all the circles .

TFS Andrreas

[Paul Burdett]

Love this image Dorian! Dan's re-edit works well too. My only suggestion would be to tone down the perch...looks a little hot to me. TFS