Ground Hornbill

[Ken Watkins]

Taken at Lebala, Kwando concession, Northern Botswana 3rd July 2009

EOS 1D MkIII

500mm F4 IS hand-held

F5.6, ISO 640, 1/2000

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Ken!
Although it looks as though the light was harsh and the BG is a little distracting I like the the DOF that you have achieved here. I love that you can clearly see all of the feathered wingtips.
Looks like a great bird!
Best,
Nicki

[Chris van Rooyen]

Well done on capturing a difficult bird in flight! I guess the head angle is not perfect but still a striking image to me and well done on retaining both hightlight and shadow detail in relatively harsh conditions. I would suggest cleaning up the background by removing the dark areas above the bird.

[Amy Marques]

I like how this fellow seemed to be taking a look at you as it glideed by, but I wish there was more wing/body area visible.

[Austin Thomas]

Hi Ken,

You did really well hand holding your equipment and getting the eye visible.

Thanks for sharing.

Austin

[Aidan Briggs]

Good comments from above. I would add that the head is rather soft, and could use another round of USM.

[Morkel Erasmus]

the flat angle makes for an interesting composition. pity he's flying away from you, but hey as Chris pointed out getting to see one flying is hard enough! great shot!

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks for all the comments, I posted this as I thought it was unusual to get a reasonable image of the Hornbill in "level" flight. The conditions were very difficult as it kept flying behind trees, and I had a damaged right hand from an incident whilst following Wild dogs, but that is no excuse really.