African Darter

[Chris Kotze]

Canon 40D
Lens 100-400 L

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the pose, sharpness, exposure control and BG but the composition does not work for me. I would either go for a pano crop or put the bird a bit higher in the frame.

[Stu Bowie]

Difficult characters to expose correctly, but you have succeeded well Chris. I like the preening pose, and would liked to have seen more of the wings.

[Desmond Chan]

Agree that the sharpness and exposure look good. This pose does not work for me unfortunately. I think it would be better if cropped tighter for a head shot or a shoulder-and-head-shot with a vertical crop. Or simply went for a full shot of the bird. As presented, I would crop some room off the top and the sides.

[Phil Ertel]

Nice look back pose with good details. With the bottom part of the bird cut I also would vote for a tighter crop.

[Milan V]

Like the colours and dof.

[Harshad Barve]

Agreed with all good points, nice bird
TFS

[Dave Barnes]

Chris I like the feather detail, colour and BG.
Chris I think this could work with a tighter crop?
I trust you dont mind.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Lovely exp Chris. I agree with Axel about crop. I wish you could see the entire wings, but you must have had a good reason for not framing that way? Thanks for sharing. Dave's repost is better, tight is good! :)

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice one Chris! great exposure. I agree on the crop, and although Dave's works better for me I would add a little more space on the sides (just a tad) :)

[Chris Kotze]

Thanks for all the comments and advice. Dave Yep the closer crop do work better thanks.
I had a problem with my ADSL connection at the office and could not log on to reply on these
messages my appolgies. I have about 10 different shots of this guy in different poses and I will do a repost later on. Thanks again.