Hoopoe portrait

[Tony Whitehead]

These Hoopoes were difficult to approach. While he was behind a cluster of rocks I managed to approach by crawling along the ground. By the time he had made his way into view I was lying still next to the rocks and he was unperturbed and continued to feed near to me. The light was quite harsh. BG is bare red earth. Could do with some NR on the BG.
Nikon D300
Nikon 200-400 @400mm
ISO800, 1/1250 f8

[Dominic Cantin]

WOW ! A detailed portrait !! The bird's colors make a good camouflage. it's slightly tight in the frame but I can live with.

Dom :)

[bill kominsky]

Light or dark it's a wonderful image, congrats on your stealth it was well worth it.

Bill

[Mark Schmitt]

Very nice image. I don't see that much noise in the BG; perhaps it's my monitor. BG colour are a compliment the the colours in the bird.

[John Chardine]

I like portraits this this Tony. By definition they are "tight in the frame" so I see nothing wrong with this. If anything you could make even tighter by cropping on right, and a bit on left. A small anticlockwise head rotation would have been nice.

Could you provide location. I was not aware that Hoopoes had been introduced to NZ!

[Grady Weed]

Details and sharp is the good points here to me. i do not mind the tight look. It is one crazy looking bird. Love the doo.

[Doug Brown]

Great portrait of a bird I'd love to see in person someday. You did well with the harsh light. A slight head turn would have been nice.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Fabulous portrait Tony - lovely work!
Regards,
Nicki

[Keith Bauer]

Really pretty. Love the detail and the complimentary colors of the background.

[Fabs Forns]

Nicely done, Tony. For the BG, you could mask the bird loosely with Quick mask, create a layer with the unselected BG and run the noise reduction on that layer.
John's crop idea may work too.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Tony,
That's a good one. You have mentioned about the harsh light. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[allanrube]

I agree with the above - tight doesn't bother me here. I wonder if you have other shots of the entire bird and the background color compliments the bird so well.

[Tony Whitehead]

Could you provide location. I was not aware that Hoopoes had been introduced to NZ!

You're right, John, they haven't been introduced to NZ:D. This was in South Africa, near the border with Botswana. It is a place I go quite frequently and interestingly, this year there seemed to have been a bit of a population explosion of these and the Wood Hoopoes. Usually we see the odd one but they were plenty this year

[James Salywoda]

Stunning portrait Tony all has been said.. Well Done!

[Stu Bowie]

Lovely portrait Tony. I like the feather detail in this, and it is nice and sharp. Yes, they are fairly skittish as I have one in my garden. The moment I go outside, he decides to fly off.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I really like the pose,eye contact and the bg`s color!!!