Yelow Billed Oxpeckers

[Jan Fourie]

I photographed these pair of oxpeckers in their nesting site in the Okavango Delta in Botswana.
I used a Canon 1 D mark 111 with a 500mm f/4 lens and used fill flash to get shadows out.
ISO 640,Shutter speed 1/300,f/6.3 on AV and flash setting -2/3
jan

[Kiran Poonacha]

looks like they just had a fight :-) nice colours and details. IMO centering the birds and giving more space down would looks better. still a nice image.. congrats..

[paul leverington]

Jan--This one is pure awesome for me. I truly love it! If you have the canvas and I hope that you do, I feel to see more of the tree bark would be even better. The extra area of grey I don't believe would overpower the birds because they have that strong color. I would also suggest to lower the brighter aspects of that bark, remove the flash reflection in their eyes, and try a bit more contrast to the birds bodies. I wouldn't loose that soft look however on their feathers. Conversely the bark is to high in contrast me thinks and mellowing that out would make the birds stand out more from the tree bark.

I agree with Kiran that you should center the two of them.

A very wonderful image worth a little tweaking.

Paul

[Graeme Sheppard]

I like the photo a lot too, it's an interesting pose and lovely colours - it's always nice to have more than one bird in focus with a good pose. I wonder if it's possible to reduce the reflection off the tree though, which I assume comes from the flash. Nice :)

[Harshad Barve]

Not on talking terms :D
Lovely species and beautiful image , nice advise above
TFS

[Jan Fourie]

thnks will do
jan

[denise ippolito]

Jan, Really cool capture. I love the pair! Agree w/ more canvas area.

[David Hemmings]

This is sweet. Great capture and use of ff. I would prefer a more vertical crop. Wonderful work!

[Doug Brown]

I think Paul covered all the bases with his excellent critique of your very nice image. Well done.

[Arthur Morris]

While there are surely alternative compositions here I love this as presented. The twin pose is killer and the ESP is perfect. You might wish to selectively sharpen the front bird especially the head as the bird on our left looks sharper.

[Marc Mol]

Great exposure Jan on the Oxpeckers, I would like some more room on the top for them.
Was this taken from a hide/blind and where in the delta?

[Dave Barnes]

I like the comp as is Jan. Good use of flash. I like the way the birds are looking in opposite directions.

[Glenda Simmons]

Really cool image. Different. I noted, as Artie that the bird we see on the right did not look quite as sharp, but love the image. The bark on the tree adds nice texture. A keeper, for sure!

[Arthur Morris]

I forgot to mention that when I saw the thumbnail I thought that the birds were on some sort of animal.... And that with their posture they looked some some unknown species of penguin....