Donacobius

[Chris Zink]

Took this picture in the Pantanal, an incredibly wild wetlands area in southern Brazil, a couple of weeks ago.

Taken with a Nikon D300s, 200-400 mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (focal length 550), handheld from a canoe. f/5.6, Shutter speed 1/500.

Comments and critiques welcome.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Chris, I liked the comp and the head angle is nice too. Nice bird too. But the focus seems to be behind the eye. And as you probably already know, the leaves are distracting.

[Chris Zink]

I considered taking the leaves out, but felt that the image would just be a 'bird on a stick' and not as interesting.

I agree re the focus - tough with a big camera and lens, handheld in a canoe. I will try selectively sharpening the eye and see if that helps.

Thanks for the comments.

[Geraldo Hofmann]

I like the composition ... and for me the leaves well they where there when you took the picture... but I agree it looks a little bit soft in particular the head. An if my memory doesn't play tricks with me; Donacobius atricapilla is less orange/reddish.

Geraldo