African Darter ( anhinga rufa )

[Stu Bowie]

I will be visiting my favourate location on sunday - Pilanesberg National Park, and although I believe the bird activity is not what it should be, I will take anything that flies across my lens. Here is a darter taken last winter in early morning light from the same location. Captured vertically.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 235mm
1/500
F/5.6
ISO 800

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand held

[Randy Stout]

Stu:

Lovely light with a nice sense of form from the shadows,excellent head angle, interesting but not overpowering perch.

I rather wish the blue band of water didn't cross right behind the head.

The brownish areas over the water below are from OOF vegetation?

Cheers

Randy

good luck on your trip

[Stu Bowie]

The brownish areas over the water below are from OOF vegetation?

Thanks Randy. The brownish areas are indeed distant grasses in the water. Im hoping to catch up with my kingfishers, but I believe due to the high level of the water, they are not around as often as they normally are.

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

Lovely light, sharp bird with good head angle/ eye contact. I agree with Randy about the bg.

Richard

[Satish Ranadive]

Marvelous creation with wonderful lights and shade. Loved the three-D effect in beautiful composition.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Absolutely gorgeous - love the pose and the light. Outsanding - I will let you off for the band of water

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely image captured in great light with good detail, good luck over the weekend

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all for the kind words and feedback. Much appreciated.

[Daniel Cadieux]

You could always darken that band to minimize its effect, and with that particualr band slightly slanted I'd try a version with it levelled to see if the image needs some CW rotation (it may be just an illusion) Nice vertical comp, light, details. I love that you left the piece of feather on the bill. Good luck on Sunday...hoping to see some images!!

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great light great detail and a cool perch. I have those days too where i just need that shooting fix... I'll shoot anything that moves almost ... Have fun

[dankearl]

Very nice 3d looking photo.
The perch is killer and I don't mind the banding at all.
I just like to see birds that I never get to see and it looks great to me.
I like the feather on the beak a lot, a cool detail.

[Tony Whitehead]

Sweet light and lovely pose on that perch, Stu. Hope the KFs co-operate. Looking forward to hearing news of Mankwe.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all for the kind words.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent shot Stu!

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful image. Love the lighting, excellent pose with the perfect head turn.
Well done.