Malachite in buffalo's pond

[laurie golden]

We found this Malachite when we stopped to photograph some buffalo in a small pond. A buffalo was heading straight for him and we were amazed that it did not scare him away. He stopped at several perches to give us several photo ops before flying away. My first Malachite!

Nikon D3S, 500m plus1.7x converter
ISO 800, F8, 1/500 sec

Cropped about 25%

[Doug Brown]

Hi Laurie. I'm not seeing an image. Let me know if I can help you with your image post.

[Randy Stout]

Laurie:

I was just getting ready to merge your posts into one, so your thumbnail would show, when Doug took care of it! Thanks Doug.

I rather like the small in frame look here. Plays up how small this little guy is. Nice BG, like the windblown feather.

I might try to lighten his face just a bit.

Cheers

Randy

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Good call on the f-stop to get the entire perch within DOF range. loved the feather on top of the head. Nice BG. If mine, I'd lighten the bird a bit and back off a bit from sharpening.

[Arthur Morris]

I love the bird and the BKGR is very nice. I'd crop a bit more to get the bird in the perfect rule of thirds position. (You are close I believe....) I cannot believe that nobody above mentioned that the bird is looking away. Best to push the button when the bird's head is at least square to the back of the camera or better yet, angled slightly toward you.

BTW, welcome and thanks a stack for your membership support.

[laurie golden]

Thank you for your helpful comments. I will try to incorporate them in my next post.

[Arthur Morris]

Thank you for your helpful comments. I will try to incorporate them in my next post.

YAW. The only place that you can improve head angle is by being aware of it in the field .