Malachite Bonding

[Dave Barnes]

Spent 3 days in the Kruger and had dull overcast conditions the whole time, so we had to make the best of the situation. Captured the male feeding the female. Only saw this once in the time that we were in the hide.
Camera Model Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/640
Av( Aperture Value ) 4.0
Exposure Compensation +1/3
Flash On
Flash Exposure Compensation -2
Shutter curtain sync High speed sync
ISO Speed 800

[Ofer Levy]

Lovely photo of these stunning birds! I think it can work as a tight horizontal if you got the space on the sides.

[Colin Driscoll]

What a couple of jewells! I like the shot as is, beautiful!

[Stu Bowie]

Great timing Dave, and just enough HA from the male to see the eye. Good flashwork to bring out the colours, which in turn are well exposed. I like the comp too.

[Kiran Poonacha]

nice interaction captured here, details are good and nice perch too... congrats

would loved to see a horizontal crop too.. congrats..

[Graeme Sheppard]

Lovely photo, perfect timing as said. I add one vote for the current crop, it's a nice bit of environment.

[Randy Stout]

Dave:

Nice colors, soft light with bit of flash worked well.

My first comp. thought was, too much below. But as I looked at it longer, I rather like it, and might even try a version with 20% or so cropped off the TOP.

Sounds like it was a good time for you.

Cheers

Randy

[denise ippolito]

Nice interaction and I like the colors and the crop. Nicely done Dave.

[Morkel Erasmus]

stunning shot Dave! love the exposure on them and the colours really pop. interaction takes it over the top.

thanks for the notes you sent me, had a chance to work through them over the weekend...

[Suzanne Huot]

To me that image alone would have made the trip worth while for you ,perhaps the cloudy conditions were an advantage for you as these birds have such bright plumage ?

[Dave Barnes]

Thanks to all for looking and for comments.
I do think that this would work as a horizontal comp but the crop would be too large for my liking.
Randt I also think your idea has a lot of merrit.

[Kris Mortensen]

Wow! Those colors are amazing. Did you boost the saturation, or the blue channel? Nice shot!

[Dave Barnes]

Thanks Kris, only very minor colour sats. (about 12 in PS)