Long Tailed Shrike

[Ken Watkins]

OK I know it is now called Magpie Shrike but I prefer the old name, from what I remember of Magpies in the UK it does not look like one apart from the colours!

This is relatively common in Southern Africa, bit difficult to get because of the tail, the squarish crop sand positioning in the frame has been dictated by the tail,

Took this in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, 7th September 2011

EOS 1D MkIV

500mm F4 IS hand-held from open game viewing vehicle

F8, ISO 800, 1/2000, EV +0.67

[gail bisson]

Good shot of a difficult bird to photograph. Always difficult to crop these guys. Good exposure on the blacks,
Gail

[Dumay de Boulle]

Lovely exp and detail, not easy to photograph and crop due to that long tail...Still seeing a few halos, but still better than the last few you had so whatever you are doing is better. Also a few dust bunnies in the top right hand corner. Nice one Ken

[Wynand van Wyk]

A lovely image captured! Blacks well exposed and like the detail on the subject. Ditto on the slight halo.

Well captured!

[Mital Patel]

Ken too good of an image. before i started reading ur description i got bumps when you called it Long tailed shrike .. Our Indian Long Tailed Shrikes are way to different :)

excellent clean shot and bang on expo just that i wish a little space on right.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Ken, good job on the blacks, and I like the pose and HA. Im not one for squarish crops ( just a personal thing ) so adding a bit more space on the right will get you away from a square crop. You could also take a bit more off the top.

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent shot and well exposed, always difficult to get the correct comp due to the long tail

[Dan Busby]

You have to love and hate those long tails! Lovely photo for reasons already mentioned. About the tail - I see some brown sections and wonder if that's a normal part of the plumage or if they might have entered via some processing.

[Robert Holguin]

Great shot. Real nice detail in the blacks, exposed well, great head angle, and great comp
Well done.

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks everybody for your comments, I am at a loss what to do with halos, especially as I caanit see them as clearly as everybody else.

Would someboby be kind enough to point out where exactly they are.

Regarding the brown patches, I think this has been caused by "bad processing" trying to remove an OOF piece of twig crossing the tail.