Bee eaters (Merops apiaster)

[Juan Aragonés]

Hi all, I apologize for my lack of participation but my computer decided to stop working and I have had a hard time trying to made everything working again.The past weekend I went to photograph bee-eaters with my friend Javier Milla. He is one of the best nature photographers that I know and a really great person (you can enjoy his superb images at www.javiermilla.es). At this time of the year, bee-eater (Merops apiaster) is, perhaps, the most photographed bird species in the Mediterranean area due to several reasons: they are fairly common, they are very tolerant and cooperative with the photographers and, mostly, because of their outstanding beauty. I am not a big fan of hides (I much enjoy and prefer to photograph from the car) so I haven´t had very good images of this beauties so when Javier invited to me to spend a morning photographing bee-eaters I accepted the offering, on the fly.
This is one of the images that I made that morning. This pair (the female is the bird on the left) is resting in their favorite perch and very soon they will be devoting the time to incubation and all the other parental duties. The light was a bit intense to my taste just right after the sun rising and I would have prefer a bit of overcastting light but, considering that this was my first session with this wonderful species I am quite happy with the results.
The distance between the perch and the hide was perfect for framing the pair with the bare 300mm lens in landscape format but only the male decided to use the perch so I decided to put on the 2X-TC to get more frame filling images in vertical format. Of course, just when the 2X-TC was on the lens the female arrived and perched with the male. Oh my god! Removing the TC seemed a very risky option and the best way to lose the opportunity so I decided to made several pictures and made a composition of the scene in photoshop. They allowed me to made just four frames. I decided to focus in the eye of the male and I had no time to refocus on the female (that was my initial intention). This image is the result, an about 20Mp composition, of two vertical frames and it was possible to made because I was using manual exposure. Should I have used shutter speed or aperture priority and the metering would be different between the frames and, of course, the exposure causing a serious problem in the final assembling of the images in PS.
BTW, the bokeh of this lens is killer instead of the fact that I stopped down to f8 to get the sweetest point of the 2X-TC (a 100% crop of the male´s head is available at my blog).

Hope you like it and I would love to hear your thoughs and comment about my work ;)

Nikon D300 AFS Nikkor 300VR + 2XTC, ISO500, 1/500s, f8, manual exposure (two frames assembled in PS), hide

[Ramon M. Casares]

Uh, con Javier! I am so jelaous of you, I look up to him and I think of him too as one of the best photographer over there and he is also very kind, I only know him via fotonatura and I just love his work. Say hi to him from (probably he doesn't even knowe me LOL)
Well, what can I say? This image is outstanding, I love the light, the colors, the BG, detail, exposure, comp, and also the fact that we can see both the slim and the fluffed version in one shot is a big plus IMO. Congratulatinos and it is good to have you back!

[Nagesh Mula]

Hi Juan,
Compositionally, I loved this picture. The assembling of pictures does not leave any clue.
As you covered the bird on the right is very sharp as you focussed on it.
But whats unusual is the female's body on the left has very sharp tail/feather but when it comes to the beak position its very soft.

[Juan Aragonés]

But whats unusual is the female's body on the left has very sharp tail/feather but when it comes to the beak position its very soft.

Nagesh I didn´t noticed that but I think that it is explained by the fact that the female is close to me than the male and that her tail is in the same focal plane that the male´s head (it was not possible to recompose and focus on the female eye)

[Doug Brown]

Wonderful composite image Juan! I think the light helps accentuate the bright colors on the birds, and to my eye it doesn't look harsh at all. Very nice!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I really like the colors,poses and the fantastic bg!!!

[Randy Stout]

Juan:

Fine work. I really appreciate the backstory and tech. details, as that will encourage me to try something similar. Now if I can just find some bee eaters in Michigan!

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

I'm so glad you finally got pictures of them,I'd take a trip there just to see them :)

Creative thinking saves the situation and your PS skills were excellent here. Congratulations and glad to have you back, your contributions are missed.

[David Hemmings]

Hello Juan! Glad for you that your computer is working :)
I really like this image because of the beautiful colors and the wonderful details you captured on this remarkably beautiful species. I find perhaps that the head of the male is a little tight to the top of the frame, and as mentioned the females head is on a little different plane of focus. Still, all around a stunning image, congrats!

[Arthur Morris]

I love the light, the birds, the colors, and the excellet optimization skills.

[Stu Bowie]

Juan, super comp, and the light and colours in this, are simply amazing. You have exposed the colours on the bee eaters very well, as some tend to oversaturate these brightly coloured birds. Well captured.

[Tony Whitehead]

Good strategy well executed, Juan. Amazing colours.

[susanschermer]

This image is way cool. Very skillful execution and on-the-spot strategy. Nice to have a friend and a hide set up for you, but being a good photographer helps too, and that you are, Juan. I missed seeing your work. I will have to check out your website.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Y que maravilla!

Wonderful work Juan! Your command of PS is amazing. Love the colors here, sharpness and of course the subjects. Great job.

[Roger Clark]

Juan,
Spectacular image, I love it!
When I do mosaics (which is a lot), I let the focus move. So in this case, moving from one bird to the other I would place the focus point on each eye. Then I would probably make a third image focused on the branch.

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

My friend, this is a killer image. It makes me really jealous ;) :)
Amazing bg and sharpness on the right bird.

Szimi

[Juan Aragonés]

Thank you for the feed back. Much appreciated :):)