Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

[mattbango]

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (Tockus leucomelas)
Djuma Private Game Reserve, Mpumalanga — South Africa
December 25, 2011

Canon 7D, 600mm f/4, handheld
f/4, 1/800, ISO 400

[Randy Stout]

Matt:

A big welcome to BPN!

These guys have so much character because of their bill, that they are naturals to photograph.

Sharp, well exposed, prey item a plus. Good choice on the f/stop to try and down play some of the busy surroundings.

Good job getting a clean look at the head.

If the image quality will tolerate, I might consider tighter cropping to play down a bit of the OOF foreground.

Normally we like to leave room in the frame for the 'virtual' tail or feet, but I think it would be worth a try at a version with a closer crop.

Cheers

Look forward to more.


Randy

[mattbango]

Great critique, Randy, and thanks for the welcome! I will definitely try a tighter crop and see how it comes out.

Thanks!

[Richard Unsworth]

Welcome

Christmas day in the bush -happy days

Great composition and timing and as Randy says f stop worked really well to isolate.
BG wonderfully smooth and clean. Blur at base a little off putting so definitely another vote for cropping
also might be beneficial due go slight highlight reduction in S&H

like it a lot

[ramesh anantharaman]

Hi Matt and welcome,

I would also try what randy says. Having said that i like the image as it gives a sense of the habitat these birds are in. and the colours are real nice. the prey is a sure plus. keep them coming......