Pintailed Wydah

[Stu Bowie]

I left my house at 4.00am yesterday morning with some photographic mates, to go to a wetland area, 110km away, for the sole purpose of capturing various species of birdlife and an assortment of ducks. When we left, the sky above us was cloudless and full of stars. When we arrived at the wetlands an hour later, the clouds came in and turned out to be a very overcast day. Well we didnt see a single duck, but instead decided to walk around the grassland behind the hide. This guy gave us a show for a while, chasing a female around the grasses. As the light wasnt great, I had to shoot with a high ISO to get ss. These guys are actually very small, and with all the grasses and flowers, it played havoc with the AF, to try and lock onto him. They also fly very erratically. This was actually a take off shot from one of the flowers.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/2000
F/5.6
ISO 800

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand Held

[Doug Brown]

Super take-off pose, and I love the way the wings and tail feathers surround the perch. Nice BG and sharpness, although I would back off on the sharpening of the head just a bit. The pano crop works well here.

[Dave Blinder]

Beautiful composition Stuart, love the perch and BG. Exp looks good too.

[Geurt Bloem]

Difficult critters to photograph at best Stu, but you caught the action very well here.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool bird and great takeoff pose. I really like the soft light and the BG looks good, too. It looks a bit oversharpened on my monitor.

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks a lot for the great feedback guys. I see the eye was oversharpened. Here is my repost with a bit of eye doctor and other small changes to soften the sharpening a tad.

[denise ippolito]

Stuart, Fantastic take-off and beautiful wing and tail position. The repost looks good. I love the BG and the composition. Looks like a very difficult shot.

[Vida van der Walt]

Wonderful take off shot Stu. Love the way the tail frames the perch, great bg, pose and soft light.:)

[Mark Dumbleton]

Stunning image Stuart! I would drive 110km just for a shot like this! Glad you got something out of the trip, well not just something you got something great. Love the pose and comp. Looks better now, did look a tad oversharpened.

[arash_hazeghi]

Comp is very nice with the long tail and pano crop, well done with AF tough to get a shot like this!!! perch is very nice

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all for the kind words. Much appreciated.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Awesome image Stuart. Great timing and love the action captured here. Congratulations !!

[Charles Glatzer]

Stuart,

This image ROCKS!

Chas

[Kiran Poonacha]

hi Bhai, nice repost, loved the bird, nice details, pose and loved the overall setting..

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Bro, this is sick mate! The repost is a better image IMHO. You did well and it's your skills and dedication that get you these out-of-this-world images! Congrats from your Aussie mate! :)

[Stu Bowie]

Judy, Chas, Kiranbhai, Akos, thank you all for the kind words.