Lilac-breasted Roller

[Chris van Rooyen]

I captured this image in the Kruger Park earlier this year. The mopani leaves had turned a rich ochre, adding a splash of colour in the background. The filtered light was due to a recent bush fire.

Camera Model: NIKON D3
Date/Time: 2009:05:25 08:01:37
Shutter speed: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 1000
Lens: 600mm with 1.7 TC
Focal length: 1000mm
Focal length: 1000mm (in 35mm film)

[subramanya_ck]

Awesome Shot. This looks exactly like our Indian Roller, except for the breast part. Beautiful composition

[Harshad Barve]

Chris
This is spectacular shot , lovely details , compo and spot on exposure , Multi-colored BG is teriffic
TFS

[Kiran Poonacha]

Loved the light, nice compo and the colours make this image, congrats..

[Nevil Lazarus]

These are such magnificent birds - and they are so common - however, one rarely sees a truly great picture that does them justice. I really like this picture, Chris - it is looking at you, the light is lovely, and the background is fabulous. The perch is my only drawback. Have you got a good flight shot? This is where they really excell...!
Regards,
Nevil Lazarus

[Lorant Voros]

Indeed a beautiful common bird. Very nice light on this one and the BG is fantastic. Perfect HA and lovely colors complete the image. Nice one, Chris.

[Clement Francis]

Thats a spectacular picture Chris, I just love the colors on that bird

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Lovely image Chris! Like the light, pose, sharp detail, natural colours & BG. Well done!

[Doug Brown]

Looks great Chris for all of the reasons outlined above.

[adrian dancy]

Without analyzing I immediately smiled because I liked this image. Colours are glorious, BG superb . Delighted to have looked at this one. Very well done.

[Rod Warnock]

Superb image !! Chris !! That Bg is to die for. The alert and crisp roller makes for a killer shot. Brings back pleasant memories of the species on a trip to Kruger in 1967 for Qantas Airways.
Best regards
Rod Warnock

[Morkel Erasmus]

Chris this is a sublime roller picture. The light, colours and pose are superb. One thing that bothers me is the texture of the dark green bokeh above your signature - did you clone out something there as it doesn't really jive with the lighter green BG around it in term of texture/contours?

[Betsie Storm]

Beautiful capture Chris, most lilac breasted roller images somehow turn out to be too washed out to do the bird justice- this one really complements this pretty bird. Great feather detail, too.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys! Morkel, I'm trying to see what you are referring to but things look fine on my monitor??

[Morkel Erasmus]

hey Chris...looking at it on the laptop now and it does seem less pronounced...funny because my home LCD is calibrated and truer to colours than this one.

I was basically referring to the darker green patch above your signature - the edges where it moved from the darker to lighter green were very visible on my home screen. If it is as shot it's fine, I might try to blend it some more - but as I said I am not seeing it as bluntly on my laptop screen which is normally not the best to judge colours/textures on.