Sungrebe

[philperry]

I photographed this foraging Sungrebe in Brazil's Pantanal. To me it is reminsicent of the African Finfoot. They both like to forage along the edge of rivers among the floating weeds and overhanging branches. A fascinating bird. Tech Details: Canon 7D with 400 f4 DO + 1.4x 1/1250th ; f5.6 ; ISO 500

[Joe Brown]

Looks great, sharp focus on head, nice light, bg and fg blur of water is nice. Only issue I see, could remove the three round highlights above the v where the neck meets the body.

Joe

[Don Lacy]

Hi Phil, Nice detail would have loved to have his head turned toward us which would have made a better connection with the viewer.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Neat little bird!! Nice and intimate view, and properly exposed for this tough plumage. Thanks for the bit of info on this guy too. Fine detail seems a bit lacking...is this a big crop? If not, I'd take even more off the bottom - perhaps up to close to the vegetation. I'd also eliminate some of the white objects (highlights that Joe mentions, plus a few debris bits on the water). I also agree a better HA would have been good.

[philperry]

Thanks for the comments guys. Much appreciated.

I hear what you say about the head angle - but in this case I prefer the way it is as it confirms that the bird is unfussed by the boat and photographer and is just doing its stuff undisturbed.

The crop is very small. For BPN I tend to go for 1024x800 - which is not always the ideal shape. For myself I would probably crop the bottom a bit more as Daniel suggested. The highlights do not really bother me as one of the great things about water is that it is sparkly.

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Phil , not seen one of these before great capture. As mentioned by Daniel I like the intimate view of the bird which is even better with the crop as suggested.

[philperry]

Thanks Pieter. They are great birds - just like our finfoot but without the red feet !