European Bee Eater (Merops apiaster)

[Marco Cabrita]

[John Chardine]

Hi Marco- Beautiful colours on this bird and great sharpness. The bird stands out very well from the nice plain background. For me there are three things to think about as far as improving the image:

1. In terms of composition it is better to have more space in the direction the bird is looking. You have about equal left and right putting the bird more or less in the middle of the frame. I would crop some off the right.

2. Notice how the angle of the head is away from you. The image would be much stronger if the head were angled towards you a little.

3. It is much better to include tails and legs in the image rather than to cut them off like here. Try to frame the subject so that you get all the parts in, or zoom in for a close portrait, in which case it's OK to cut off large portions of the body.

Could you provide the technical details of the image such as camera, lens, ISO, shutter speed, aperture and all the other details that help us to analyse the image.

Anyway you are off to a good start here. A real challenge for most people is obtaining a sharp image and you have certainly done that here! Look forward to seeing more!

[Marco Cabrita]

Hi Marco- Beautiful colours on this bird and great sharpness. The bird stands out very well from the nice plain background. For me there are three things to think about as far as improving the image:

1. In terms of composition it is better to have more space in the direction the bird is looking. You have about equal left and right putting the bird more or less in the middle of the frame. I would crop some off the right.

2. Notice how the angle of the head is away from you. The image would be much stronger if the head were angled towards you a little.

3. It is much better to include tails and legs in the image rather than to cut them off like here. Try to frame the subject so that you get all the parts in, or zoom in for a close portrait, in which case it's OK to cut off large portions of the body.

Could you provide the technical details of the image such as camera, lens, ISO, shutter speed, aperture and all the other details that help us to analyse the image.

Anyway you are off to a good start here. A real challenge for most people is obtaining a sharp image and you have certainly done that here! Look forward to seeing more!

Thanks for your advices john.

This was taken with a Canon 40D plus a Telescope Skywatcher ED80 600mm manual focusing.

Iso 500
600 mm
F7.5
1/500
Tripod

The image wasn´t croped, it was taken as it is. I realized that i was to close to the bird when he landed, and then it was to late to move my position. I was using an hide at 4 meters away.

[John Chardine]

You obtained excellent sharpness with the telescope Marco! Do you have any with the head turned towards you a little?

[Marco Cabrita]

You obtained excellent sharpness with the telescope Marco! Do you have any with the head turned towards you a little?

Here´s one as you asked john. It was taken in the same day and maybe at the same bird.