Got the chance to approach this bird and was rewarded with full-frame portrait while it was calling.
Blue-Throated Bee-Eater
40D+EF400mm, f7.1, 1/500, ISO400, Manual Exposure,Handheld
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Got the chance to approach this bird and was rewarded with full-frame portrait while it was calling.
Blue-Throated Bee-Eater
40D+EF400mm, f7.1, 1/500, ISO400, Manual Exposure,Handheld
![]()
The bird itself is very nice, but short of a tail. The background is very distracting in particular the red.
If you are going to have the bird so tight in the frame you might as well go all the way and crop tighter. I would keep it as a vertical but crop away the perch and feet, crop about half of the space between bird's left wing and edge of frame (our right)and then add a bit of canvas at top. Love the singing pose! :-)
I love the colors and the bird and even the BKGR colors, but the framing does not work for me at all (even though I generally like tight body part images... The relatively huge perch with the bird sticking into the frame leaves the image totally unbalanced. In this case, I would rather have seen the whole bird. The image is sharp and green breast amazing.
What species of bee-eater?
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I think you did well on the image sharpness and detail. I agree the perch detracts. The background is most troubling to me. The reds and yellows in the upper area tend to compete with the colors of a wonderfully colored bird, and the bird should have the stage all to itself. I think as far as color harmony goes, if the purple color that shows around the right side of the bird filled entire background, the image would be far better. One other thing, and I would be interested where the image was taken. I don't see where you are located listed with your post. I'm sure it is not a requirement, however, that might give me an rough idea of where the picture was taken. (like what hemisphere) ~onlybill
It's the Blue-Throated Bee-Eater taken in Subic Rainforest in Manila.
I failed to get the full image of this bird as it perched on a very near branch. I was inside my car and have nowhere to back off. Anyway, I should have cut more from below for tighter portrait.
Thanks a lot Artie, still studying your great book.
As such this is a superb bird image. Excellent sharpness, detail and superb feather and background colors. Sometimes they just come by this way. Well done
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