Southern Carmine Bee-eater

[Chris van Rooyen]

This is another image from my trip to the Okavango Delta in October. The bee-eaters were nesting in the river bank at Shakawe village. They would hawk insects and then often settle on a steel railing before jumping off and entering the nest. This is what this bird is doing. I cleaned up the background (which is the river) by removing the steel railing and another distracting bird in the background.

Camera Model: NIKON D3
Date/Time: 2009:10:21 15:43:17
Shutter speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Manual
Exposure compensation: -1/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 1000
Lens: 500mm
Focal length: 500mm

[Doug Brown]

Perfect Chris! You couldn't ask for a better wing position, head angle, or snack. Cleanup work looks good too.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Chris...compostionally very strong. loved the diagonal placement and the wing position a lot. The color combination is working very well here. Thx for sharing.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Great looking bird. I also believe that wing position could not have been any better. Exposure looks great and pray adds to the behavior of these amazing birds. Sweet BG.

[Paul Marcellini]

Beautiful position and I like the blue background to set off the bird.

[Elmar Venter]

Chris, your photography is inspirational.

[scott benson]

truely stunning,

[arash_hazeghi]

Fantastic wing position and sharpness Chris, congrats

[Bill Dix]

Outstanding! Not only the wing position, but you've caught the perfect moment to show the shape of the bee-eater's tail as well. Not to mention the color, sharpness, composition, head angle and meal. It's all there. Really well captured.

[Mike Veltri]

Super in flight, the bug is icing on the cake.

[Fabs Forns]

Absolutely perfect pose, diagonal tail and full wing spread. Even a perfect head angle :)
Congrats on a big winner!

[Nagesh Mula]

Again one very good picture Chris. Congrats!!

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Chris, Just WOW! This a fantastic image. Composition, pose, colors, and prey all add up to a stunning image. Thanks for sharing.

[Marc Mol]

On of my favourite African birds Chris. I love how you've handled the color, just right and not over saturated.
Also congrats on your recent cover shot of the flying leopard in Oct/Nov B&B mag, just splendid!
TFS

[Ofer Levy]

Fantastic techs!! I like the composition too. Maybe a slight boost in colour saturation?

[Harshad Barve]

Yet another excellent image , Picture perfect
TFS

Also congrats on your recent cover shot of the flying leopard in Oct/Nov B&B mag, just splendid!
TFS

Would love to see this image on BPN :)

[A_Maddah]

Hi chris
Perfect!Realy lovely.congrats

Asad

[Kiran Poonacha]

Amazing one Bhai, great pose, perfect eye contact and the insect puts this over the top.. big congrats..

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks guys, comments appreciated as always!:)

[Ofer Levy]

Here is a repost with only slight levels adjustment which according to the histogram was really needed. Please let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Ofer

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Incredible timing and wonderful flight pose. Love this one Chris !!!!

[Chris van Rooyen]

Hi Ofer

"Here is a repost with only slight levels adjustment which according to the histogram was really needed......

Can you elaborate?

Rgds

Chris

[Ofer Levy]

Hi Ofer

"Here is a repost with only slight levels adjustment which according to the histogram was really needed......

Can you elaborate?

Rgds

Chris

Hi Chris, the only thing I did is moving the slider on the left to where the signal is starting to show which is more or less where it should be when you adjust levels.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks for the explanation Ofer:). Personally I do not believe in a "that is where it should be" approach to levels i.e. I don't always move the slider to exactly the point where the pixels start showing, I prefer to visually judge the results. In this instance, I prefer the original version of the image, (less contrast).

[Ofer Levy]

Thanks for the explanation Ofer:). Personally I do not believe in a "that is where it should be" approach to levels i.e. I don't always move the slider to exactly the point where the pixels start showing, I prefer to visually judge the results. In this instance, I prefer the original version of the image, (less contrast).

Hi Chris, I agree with you that we should visually judge the results rather than go by the histogram alone but usually the two approaches have to match at least to some extent. I have never seen this bird but I saw many photographs of it and on my monitor the colours of the original post are not as vivid as they should be. Having said that I guess it is also a matter of personal taste...;)
Cheers,
Ofer

[Chris van Rooyen]

Yes I guess personal taste does play a big role:) thanks for the inputs, appreciated as always.

[Jim Crosswell]

Perfection!

[Juan Aragonés]

Stunning image Chris, pose is just superb, light angle couldn´t be better, terrific BG, fantastic eye contac and... a prey in the beak. I wouldn´t change a single pixel on the file. Man this one is out of this world :)

[philperry]

Maybe its splitting hairs .... But I agree with both Chris and Ofer that personal preference comes into play regarding saturation & histogram slider positions.

Personally I would prefer a slightly more saturated picture but not quite as saturated as Ofer's re-post. The bird is in breeding colours and I feel that if the saturation is turned down too much it looks more like a non-breeding plumage.