Lilac Breasted Roller

[Ken Watkins]

As you get older birthdays generally mean less and presents mean less and less. This year I got this!

Taken in Etosha National Park, Namibia, 25th June 2011

EOS 1D MkIV

500mm F4 IS hand-held from our vehicle

F6.3, ISO 400, 1/2500

[Stu Bowie]

Spot on with the colours Ken, and a great close up of a LBR. You had enough ss to have stopped down a bit more to try a achieve a touch more DOF. Killer BG.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Stunning colors and so sharp. love this bird. I feel its a tad big in the frame....but I guess that creates the impact.

[Jason Hurst]

Gorgeous image!

Now THAT is how an image from the 1D Mk IV should be...BRIGHT, BOLD, and FULL of RICH, BRILLIANT COLORS!!

Enough of this "subtle, soft, gentle colors" CRAP!!

[yogesh_puranik]

i just liked the colors here

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks everbody for some very interesting reactions and suggestions .

This is basically full frame, we were very close.

Stuart,

I wondered about the DOF which is very noticable here and with hindsight a n increase in F stop could probably have got more sharpness on the body, but i really wanted that BG

Jason,
I love your comment something which should be said more often, when I first got the camera my initial reaction were far better colours

In Etosha the light is often harsh and I think it shows here

[MohsenVahedipour]

I like lovely colors, excellent sharpness & neat BG. TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice colors Ken

[Mital Patel]

Ken,

Extremely beautiful and colorful this is. sharpness is just best. perch is clean and bg is smoooooooooth.