The Swallowing

[Kiran Poonacha]

The white eyed buzzard like many other BOP swallow small prey whole. I caught this moment of the swallowing.

Spec: 1/2000, F 7.1, -1/3, ISO 400.

Canon 40D + 500mm F4 + I.4TC

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great timing, I like the captured moment, details, composition and eye contact.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Kiran, I love everhthing about this one--your choice of up and down perspective and your angle to the bird, the EXP, the little tail, the BKGR, the and the perfect timing. It sure looks as if you used flash....

[Tony Whitehead]

Great moment captured. That eye looks amazing. Well done.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement.

Arthur, I did not use flash here. I feel the texture of the bird is giving that feel.. Thanks again.

[Morkel Erasmus]

super capture Kiran! ditto the eye - the low angle is perfect here. love it.

[Joe Senzatimore]

OUTSTANDING capture.

[Arthur Morris]

Arthur, I did not use flash here. I feel the texture of the bird is giving that feel.. Thanks again.

Wow, that is amazing and is reflects quite well on both 40D image quality and your image optimization skills.

Did you check the RAW EXIF data???

[Mital Patel]

Dear Bhai,
This is a truely a majestic raptor and fantastic image at every point.
The only question i have in my mind is based on the condition of light angle and everything wonder how you get so perfect light inside the mought though the mouse is blocking certain light from coming in.

[Stu Bowie]

Great timing to capture the moment. Perfect angle, and I like light, detail and colours in this. Great eye too.

[Dave Barnes]

Very interesting capture. Super detail, well exposed.

[Kobus Tollig]

Super shot well done. Is the eye natural cause its so bright it almost looks unreal

[Kiran Poonacha]

Authur, Thank you so much.. I always looked up to you when I took up photography. I value your appreciation very much.

Sorry, I did not understand the question "Did you check the RAW EXIF data??? "

@mital.. Thanks Bhai, Its because of the Sun's angle (Just rising) I suppose. I have not done any selective work inside the mouth of the Bird.

Thanks Kobus. Yes the eye is Natural. I actually have tone it down a little bit.

[Mital Patel]

thanks for the quick pointings to right direction as i was still in some wonder myth on the mouth light. got the point ..

[Arthur Morris]

Authur, Thank you so much.. I always looked up to you when I took up photography. I value your appreciation very much.

Sorry, I did not understand the question "Did you check the RAW EXIF data??? "

@mital.. Thanks Bhai, Its because of the Sun's angle (Just rising) I suppose. I have not done any selective work inside the mouth of the Bird.

Thanks Kobus. Yes the eye is Natural. I actually have tone it down a little bit.

Hi Again Kiran, All of the comments above are politely suggesting that it seems more than likely that flash was used to create this image. If you did not do any selective work inside the mouth, it would seem that you surely used flash. So when I asked you to check the EXIF in the RAW file, I was asking that you check more carefully to see if flash was used.

Do you use flash on occasion?

In my 25+ years of bird photography the only bright pink mouths that I have been seen were when flash was used.

Respectfully.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Hi, Auther I swear by the photography gods, that I did not use flash here.

I have listed the info copied from the RAW file

File name
IMG_2759.CR2
Camera Model Name
Canon EOS 40D
Shooting Date/Time
22-02-2009 08:37:27
Tv(Shutter Speed)
1/2000Sec.
Av(Aperture Value)
F7.1
Metering Modes
Evaluative metering
Exposure Compensation
-1/3
ISO Speed
400
Lens
EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Focal Length
700.0 mm
Image size
3888 x 2592
Image Quality
RAW
Flash
Off
White Balance
Auto
AF mode
AI Servo AF
Picture Style
Standard
Parameters
Tone Curve : Standard
Sharpness level : -
Pattern Sharpness : -
Contrast : 0
Sharpness : 7
Color saturation : 0
Color tone : 0
Highlight tone priority : No
Color matrix
-
Color Space
sRGB
File Size
12099 KB
Dust Delete Data
No
Drive Mode
High-speed continuous shooting
GPS Data
Satellite signal status : -
Date(UTC) : -
Latitude : -
Longitude : -
Altitude : -
Geographic coordinate system : -
Owner's Name
Kiran Poonacha
Camera Body No.
630309960

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for re-checking Kiran. It says "Flash off" and that is good enough for me.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Thanks Guruji...

[Paul Kusmin]

quite an amazingly intense shot with super eye contact, a well named species.
I like the detail and lighting but would like to see a bit more canvas below the bird.