Roseate Spoonbill

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Although the eye contact is definitely there, for me this image does not qualify for the March theme of "looking straight down the barrel". You need to see two eyes to qualify imo.

I like the background a lot in this image as there are no distracting elements, which is quite a challenge with the mangrooves at Alafia Banks. The 1600mm (800mm f/5.6 plus 2.0x TC III) helped a lot in creating this portrait. Obviously, the manual focus was a lot easier with the bird standing still. I love these spoonies!

I did rotate the image a little and added some canvas on the right. I am sure some canvas could also be added to the bottom, but I am okay with it as is.

This image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the 2.0X III TC, and the EOS-1DMIV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at -2/3: 1/800 sec. at f/13 set manually. Manual focus.

All comments are welcome.

Thanks for looking.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

What a shot. Loved the HA, colors, low angle and the softness in the plumage.

[Randy Stout]

Clemens:

Sharp,nicely exposed, good angle, wonderful eye, handsome bird.

I would prefer more canvas below, but its pretty close.

Fine job using that much magnification.

Cheers

Randy

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Awesome IQ, beautiful colors, bg and low angle. I too would prefer some more canvas below. Gorgeous image either way. Thanks for sharing.

[Greg Basco]

Clemens, very nice -- love the colors and the IQ with the long lens and 2x. I could see having composed to include more on the bottom but I also think it works well as presented.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Pieter de Waal]

Beautiful colours and excellent sharpness Clemens. HA shows off the bill very well. Nice image overall .I also would consider adding a bit more space at the bottom.