The Sound of Africa

[Ken Watkins]

A Fish Eagle calls across the leke.

Taken at Rhino Safari Camp, Matusadona, Zimbabwe, 13th June 2009

EOS 1D MkIII

500mm F4 hand-held

F6.3, 1/6400, ISO 500, EV-2/3rds

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful one, amazing pose too... Congrats..

I would take some space of the bottom and balance it off on the top.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose, good light and beautiful bird. I would remove the whitewash and there seems to be a S/H halo around the bird. Was the original underexposed?

[Markus Jais]

Wonderful shot. I like the slightly open wings and the head pose. Very good BG.

Markus

[Ramon M. Casares]

Tricky pose to compose, I like the comp as it is but I wonder how a horizontal format would look like.
Stunning pose, great light, detail, colors ans species. Congratulaitons!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

beautiful pose/light,I would prefer to see a bit crop to the bottom!

[Doug Brown]

Great pose! I think -2/3 EC was a little too much for this shot. The darks are a little too dark and you've definitely got room in the whites. I suspect neutral exposure would have yielded better balance. Agree about taking a bit off the bottom. Also, the sky has magenta blotches in it on my monitor.

[Ken Watkins]

The problem here was obviously the whites, I was still getting highlights at -1/3rd.

I also think that the conversion to JPEG is a little suspect as it always seems to be vastly different from the TIFF.

As for the crop I looked at that and did not think cutting the perch in half looked as good. I am also happy to leave the poop in place .

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely pose and head position. Nice soft light. Agree on a crop from the bottom and whitewash removal....

With my MIII in what seems like very soft light I would have actually gone with some plus EXP COMP....

Lastly, I do not see a halo even when tiltting the screen....

[Ken Watkins]

Art,

Thanks very much this is a lot better, I am glad that you see no halo, as I did not use S/H.

As I have promised the owner of the lodge a print of this can I use yours?

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent pose. Artie's repost looks great. Super colours and detail.

[Arthur Morris]

Art, Thanks very much this is a lot better, I am glad that you see no halo, as I did not use S/H. As I have promised the owner of the lodge a print of this can I use yours?

YAW. You can use the crop, but please do not make a big print from from this tiny JPEG; the lodge owner would not be happy. The whitewash cleanup was done with a series of QMs, several of which were warped, some Clone Stamp work, and a few whacks with the Patch Tool.

[Morkel Erasmus]

what a shot of my favourite bird! and that call is haunting. can't wait to hear it again. lovely light and exposure in this shot Ken! Artie's repost makes it shine.

[David Fletcher]

Fabulous timing Ken. As mentioned, Artie's repost does make it shine. Like a sis, but also wouldn't mind a horizontal version which would have appeal too.

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

I like the display and the lighting. I think leaving too much space under bird resulting the bird to be too centered.

[Fabs Forns]

Very nice pose and bird, made better with the repost. If you crop and sharpen yours, it will shine.