European Roller

[Ken Watkins]

Taken in Deception Valley, Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana 7th March 2009

EOS 1D MkIII

500 F4 Is hand-held

F6.3, 1/3200, ISO800

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice take-off pose, and I like the perch. Beautiful colours to this bird! Image needs to be trimmed significantly at right (at least half the space between tail and edge), and more sharpening is in order for web presentation. The lower half of the BG has some blotches (cloning marks?) that need to be cleaned up.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the takeoff pose and eye contact and agree with Daniel regarding crop and removing of the blotches in the lower left. I would also sharpen the bird a bit more.

[Stu Bowie]

Great timing for the take off Ken, with lovely light on the head and eye. Comp wise, the other's have covered with regards to space. Well captured.

[Ken Watkins]

Ooops, I posted an intermediate version, not properly cleaned up. I have cropped as suggested and sharpened a little more. Too my mind this looks far better, thanks for the good advice!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Looks alot better Ken! Well done on the repost :-)

[Tony Whitehead]

Repost does the job, Ken. Well done.