Maribou Stork

[Ken Watkins]

Taken in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, 22nd June 2009

It was flying down

EOS 1D MkIII

500mm F4 IS hand-held

F8, ISO400, 1/2500

[Ryan Lambert]

Good capture here Ken, Good feather detail, sharpness and angle of flight, the comp looks a bit too centered, maybe a tad off the right and top and add a bit to the left...

[Keith Carver]

Nice lighting and EXP, Ken. I like the downward diagonal COMP; subtracting some canvas on the RHS might help, even if it produces a square frame. Wish the rear wing were more distinct. Sharpness looks good - you did well handholding that 500 mm!

[Morkel Erasmus]

great exposure and unusual angle here Ken. pin sharp too. I would even consider adding more space in front.

[Stu Bowie]

Excellent exposure and detail captured in this Ken. Sharp, and I would move him to the right.

[Loukie Viljoen]

Nice one Ken one must be carefull not to have your image in the "bulls eye", ie draw diagonals from the corner to corner and avaoid the intersection if possible.

[Harshad Barve]

All good points covered and agreed
Great pose and nice details
TFS

[Kiran Poonacha]

Lovely pose, Head position is well synthed with the wing position and lovely details too... I am not too sure of the comp.. still a wonderful image.. congrats...

[Dave Barnes]

These guys are ugly. Nice capture Ken,
I would still like to capture one of these guys in the air. Good feather detail in the dark and light feathers. Have you tried a portrait crop?

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks for all the comments, yes they are ugly you should see their chicks even worse.

I had great difficulty in deciding a position within the frame, so posted it roughly off-centre. I have plenty of sky in the original, is the general consensus that I should add more to the left?

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great pose Ken. Agreed with expanding canvas in front. So sharp too! :)

[Ken Watkins]

Here is a resize, which I have to admit looks a lot better. Thanks for the advice.