Crimson Breasted Bee-eater

[Ken Watkins]

Taken in Nxai Pan Game Reserve, Botswana, 11th March 2009

Same bird as my last post before taken later in the sequence.

EOS 1D MkIII

500mm F4 IS Hand-held

F6.3, ISO 800, 1/4000, EV +1/3rd

Reason for high ISO was to try to achieve a fast enough shutter speed to capture the wasp being bashed against the termite mound. This did not work very well.

[Randy Stout]

Ken:

Great timing again. I really like the strong diagonal, the environmental tie in with the termite mound.

I took the liberty of a couple minor tweaks to try and give the image a bit more punch, without being gaudy.

Set the black point, gaussian blur on background, brought eye up just a bit, and cropped a bit from top to accentuate the diagonal.

Thanks so much for sharing these guys. Nothing like them in Michigan!

Cheers

Randy

[Juan Aragonés]

Perfect timing and composition Ken. The wasp is a terrific bonus.

[Mark Dumbleton]

Great moment captured Ken, although the image is too noisy that it is distracting.
Excellent timing!

[Stu Bowie]

Very well timed to see the catch between the beak Ken, and love the diagonal posture. Randy has done a good job on the BG. Still a species I need to capture.

[Randy Stout]

Mark:

At least part of what you are seeing in the background is bad bokeh, not just noise. The bright, out of focus highlights are what I found so distracting, hence my changes in the repost.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great moment captured and I like Randy's repost. The blurred BG looks more pleasing.

[Ken Watkins]

Having taken all of the most welcome comments into account I am trying again.
Having experimented with higher ISO on the MkIII I have to admit that they only work well when there is some light, rather than the dull conditions we had.

[Charlie VanTassel]

This last repost is the best so far IMO. I would use the dodge tool to slightly lighten the eye. What a great photo!

[Ken Watkins]

Charlie,

Thanks for that it just goes to show that I am learning well from this forum.

Now I will have to figure out the dodge tool!