Yellow Billed Hornbill Portrait.

[Stu Bowie]

Going through some older files again, and came across this hornbill. Sometimes, I capture images solely for the purpose of creating a portrait image. Taken two years ago in the Pilanesberg Nature reserve. I posted a grey Lourie recently from the same location. The BG is as shot and natural.

Canon 20D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/640
F/14
ISO 400

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand held

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Head angle, sharpness and BG look very good. I'm wondering what it would look like if we could see a bit more of the body.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great one, I love the eye and the expression on this bird.
Color comp is excellent too.

[Steve Maxson]

A great expression on this bird, Stuart. Very sharp, good exposure, and a nice background. I find myself wishing for a little more room at the bottom. :)

[Manjesh Lingamurthy]

Hi Stuart

Nice colors and detail in the bird. Pleasing background. Like the flow of the neck, head and the beak in the picture, making it a nice composition. For me, the body of the bird at the right lower corner is distracting, as it is too small. Crop it or put a little more of the body, so that it flows with picture.

Manjesh

[Christian Dionne]

Beautiful portrait Stuart, Very sharp, great colors, the BG is just perfect.
Very nice shot!

About the body I would not crop it out, it would give the illusion that the neck could be longer, I like it this way.

[Vida van der Walt]

Beautiful portrait Stu. I like the comp as is and love the great detail, colours and complimentary bg.:)

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the HA, BG and detail in this portrait. Well done!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Awesome image Stuart. I love the pose, light, BG, colours. Only wish for a bit more of the body - as posted perhaps about 1/2 more at bottom. I also love the eyelashes cutting across the eye.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much for the great feedback and comments. Much appreciated.

[Phil Liew]

What a surreal shot of an interesting bird. I too would prefer a bit more body in this shot. Apart from that all else is brilliant.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Stuart, you had some really bright light here. plenty of SS even at f/14 and iso400. I like this a lot. Good thing you stopped down so much. awesome sharpness and DOF. works well inspite of the shooting angle.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Really like this portrait Stuart! Just perfect for me!

[Stu Bowie]

Phil, KD, Roman, thanks for having a look and for your comments.