The male came twice this morning with a freshly caught little snake. I don't think this is the best one, but maybe interesting enough. Making my new book ("Surviving the day" is the Swedish title) later this Summer I'll find the best in this series - hopefully.
Last edited by Brutus Ostling; 05-20-2009 at 01:57 PM.
Lovely interaction, colors, sharp and well exposed. Head angle great on right bird, Ok on left. Perch very interesting both in shape and texture. Nice BG.
I wish there was a little more room on both sides and that the eye of the left bird was a bit brighter.
Wonderful natural moment! Nice light although I'd try to brighten the bird on top eye. Amazing perch, perfect BG, great level of detail, colors and poses! Congratulations!
Love the moment, Brutus - perch and poses create a lovely comp. Agree on brightening the eye of the bird on the left a little. The ruffling of the feathers of the bird on the right really adds to this image in my view.
I took the liberty of bringing up the eye on the left bird a bit. Perhaps not acceptable for your sense of post processing ethics, but that seemed the only weakness in this lovely image. I tried to match the brightness of the other birds eye, without making it look overdone.
What a great image. Randy did a good job bringing out the shadow on the left bird's head. I think I would like to see just a little bit of space all around. Your BG superb here and the close up action is hard to beat.
Great sighting. Normally these guys have insects in their beaks, so a snake is a huge bonus. Lovely interaction, I like the poses, light and colours, and what a killer BG. Well captured.
Thanks, also for helping with the shadows. I did the same with the shadows yesterday evening with another image in the same series, an image that I sent to a magazine (Camera Naturas next isue), I had promised them twelve pages today - they had let the pages be open (good they trusted me, it shall be printed on Monday). So I definitively do not have anything against post-processing. We have to do that, it's our obligation like in old days darkrooms. In this case the light was a little bit hard, it's better half an hour earlier. But at that time, there was no snake. By the way, they are not quarreling, it's the male (left) who invites the female to eat this wonderfully delicate snake for dinner. (Why? Of course, he wants sex afterwards.)
Last edited by Brutus Ostling; 05-21-2009 at 12:20 PM.
Wonderful as expected. Good job with the shadowed face and eye in Randy's repost. I would go a bit further and darken that bird's pupil.
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I just have seen this image on your Facebook Wall but I could not comment as we are not friends yet :)
Amazing image and a very sweet behavior captured. Great indeed!
Rollers with a snake
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