Lilac-breasted Roller

[Hendri Venter]

I created this image in Kruger National Park last month. I'm happy with this one as I always wanted one with the tail feathers nicely spread. All comments and crits welcome.

Canon EOS 7D
Canon 300mm F2.8 IS Lens @ 300mm
Aperture Priority
Aperture F6.3
ISO 400
SS 1/2000s

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent pose and good job focusing on the speedy bird. colors are nice too.TFS

[Krijn Trimbos]

Very cool pose Hendri!

Love the colors, the fanned tail and composition. I would like to see this a bit sharper, especially on the head. Otherwise excellent!

[Randy Stout]

Hendri:

Great tail display, action packed pose.

It does appear that the point of focus was on the tail as that seems the sharpest.

I do think you can tease some more sharpness out of the eye/head with a little selective work on the raw file.

A beautiful bird.

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

New toy mate??? A different posture from the norm, and it works for me - especially showing the underbelly, folded legs, and the splayed tail. This could do with some additional sharpening, but still well captured.

[Hendri Venter]

Oops, forgot the sharpen after resize. Herewith a sharper version.

Thanks for the comments Arash, Krijn, Randy and Stu. Yes Stu, sold the 350 and 40D to by this. Gives me more reach with the 1.6 crop and 18mp and cheaper than a 500 or 600mm.;) Still prefer my MKIII though.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose, eye contact and colors. The additional sharpening helps a lot, I might selectively sharpen the head a bit more. These guys seem to fly very fast.

[Callie de Wet]

Hat off to you Hendri, also one on my wishlist, Normally they fly AWAY! but this one oblidged and you nailed it beautifully! Congrats!

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent shot super detail and colours. Well captured

[Hendri Venter]

Thank You Axel, Callie and Chris. Much appreciated.