I created this image during my trip to the Kruger National Park last month. It was very soft, early morning light, therefore the high ISO. The background is winter grass, and this little guy was waiting for the morning sun to warm it up before it starts hawking insects.
Unbelievable image at ISO 3200 :o
The composition is beautiful. The emerald colored bird so nicely pops up from the pleasant bg. I also like the fading OOF grass in the bg at the bottom.
Doesnt get better than this Chris! Lovely colours, exposure to render low noise but the composition here does it for me! Love the few little grass stems at the bottom of the image - great finishing touch! Well captured!
Its a beautiful composition.I like the mood here. As like others,I too am amazed by the high ISO and you did a fantastic job with NN. Congratulations!!
I really like the composition, great details, light and the inclusion of the OOF vegetation at the bottom adds to it. I guess you could have gone to a lower ISO considering the high shutter speed. Have you tried to increase the color temperature a bit, the perch looks a bit blueish on my monitor.
Thanks for the comments guys!. Axel, good point on the ISO - when I went through the series after I posted this image I found that I had several images at ISO 640 at a much low shutter speed!
Killer image Chris. When I see this kind of results from the D3 I madly love that body and I feel a lot of temptations to rder one but I have to be realistic: a D3 is full frame and in Spain it is pretty useless for the kind of photography I do. I tried one when it was launched in Spain an since that time I can not think in other body (it is a story of love and hate :D)
By the way, I love the subtle OOF of the grasses in the bottom of the frame and... of course the whole image. Very well done
Chris, birds are really skittish in Spain. Bird photographers here are always looking for more and more reach and a camera with an APS sensor matched with teleconverters is the common choice for us. I know very few bird photographers in Spain using full frame cameras like the D3 and D700 (instead of the fact that their amazing ISO capabilities and AF performance) and the ones that I know, shoots a wider range of subjects (mammals, landscapes, environmental, etc) not mostly birds. If you shoot mainly from a car, like I do, you can´t go for a D3 because you are going to lose a lot of reach (no matter if you use teleconverters). Reach is not a big problem if you are photographing from a blind but with small birds it is difficult to get frame filling images and, once again, APS format is a better choice.
Of course, before the arrival of digital APS bodies we all were using full frame cameras and we did our job with the tools we had at that time but after using an APS body… well, you know ;)
PS. I see a D3 in my future (perhaps a used body) because the few times I had the opportunity of shooting with that body has been a fantastic photographic experience, a real joy :)
Thanks for the interesting perspective on APS vs Full Frame. I used to feel exactly like that, but I have found that I do not really miss the crop factor of the MK III as much as I thought I would. Probably because the pixel size (and therefore quality) on the D3 is so good that you can really do some serious cropping without losing too much quality.
Call me crazy but one of the things I loved the most of this image were the OOF stick at the bottom. Great light, species, comp, perch, colors, detail and pose. Congratulations!
Little bee-eater
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