Costa Rica: Keel Billed Toucan

[Vivek Khanzode]

December 2009; Selva Verde, Sarapiqui, CR

Very difficult light to shoot (early morning, shade etc.)

C & C is always welcome.

-- Vivek

[pauloanjo]

beautifull bird and photo. Could you tell what camera and lens you used.
I would crop a little from the right.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Beautiful bird and pose. DOF really works. I like the inclusion of habitat. Nice colors and exposure. Try and see if you can pull out more details in blacks during raw conversion. Comp-wise, I think the bird is too centered. Bird a little "towards the right" in the frame would have been better. But that might have brought some distracting branches into the frame.

[Ilija Dukovski]

This is just an excellent image. I like it very much.
The pose and perch are great, good detail in the blacks.
These birds are not easy shoot,
often high in the canopy. I like the colors and you did very well
considering the light conditions.
I only might crop out the OOF part in URH corner and get rid of the
round dot in the LLH corner. Perhaps get rid of the bill shine if possible.
Very nice.

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image of this Toucan. I can relate to fighting with lighting conditions. Well done!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Nice image, may be a bit centered and small but nice. I like the look back pose and the BG. Exposure looks good. I also agree about mentioning the gear used.

[Martin Wallis]

One more vote for cropping from the right and bringing out some details in blacks if possible. Great looking subject!

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great pose here Bhai, loved the colours and Bird too.. congrats..

[Vivek Khanzode]

@Paulo; I usually keep the EXIF intact; sorry. I was carrying two cameras on the day, either it was 7D + 300 2.8IS or it was 5DII + 400/5.6L. I will add the details when I get home.

@Kaustubh, Ilija: This one has minimal PP via the LR2.6. I agree with the comp. The new cameras have so much latitude with comp that it is making me sloppy. I also do not like the branch behind the Toucan's head, but this shot could be had for about 5 seconds and with a skittish bird like this, I will take what I can get. I will post a second crop with off center bird (crop out the stuff on right which is distracting).

The light was also very poor. If I remember correctly this is 1600 ISO with shutter speed around 1/100 or so hand held; i.e. very poor light. I may not get rid of the shine on the bill because this is what it really looks like.

Thanks to both of your comments.

@Jim, thank you.

@Juan, I am limited by posting guidelines; but I do have larger one available. I think I have begun my love affair with CR; beautiful people, beautiful birds, beautiful land in general. Hmmm may be I should start thinking of retiring in CR....

@Martin, thank you. Will post another crop this weekend.

@Kiran, thanks bhai.