The Dragon Slayer

This is a Chestnut headed bee eaters (Merops leschenaulti) , i have never noticed any difference between the males and females of this species.

The image was made last week from a car window , handheld since the bird was above me and i needed some height so had to leverage the hands to get it up as high as possible.

I did make a few images in the 2 days with a few different catches.

5D MIII + 400 f 2.8 + 2x TC

1/800, ISO 1000, f 7.1 with a +1/3 to expose the colors right

I know i have not got the tail in focus however to get it in focus i needed drop my shutter speed and 1/800 was the last i afforded handheld in that angle .



i tried a images with ISO 2000 and noticed the yellows blowing out most of the times hence the choice of 1000 , also no real estate left under the bird so was not possible to extend the canvas.

C & C are welcome

I like the sharpness, catch, colourful bird, HA and complimentary BG. Well done! Here is a quick version with a little more room below and some cloning.

Vishal:

The bird is lovely, great position of his catch,nice colors.

Jim's repost has helped clean up some of the distractions.

The biggest issue for me at this point is the large oof branch dominating the left side of the image. I would experiment with cropping in a bit from the left to reduce that impact, even at the expense of a non classical composition.

Cheers

Randy

Very nice colors and sharp eye, I think the repost cleans up the perch a little.

Great looking bird, issue is the big perch, Jim's version looks cleaner but still a distraction. It is a good image.

The face and the dragonfly are so sharp and perfectly posed, I don't mind the OOF branch. It keeps me from wandering away from the wonderful subject. Beautiful image!!

Hi Vishal, great reposts from the guys above. I really like the colours on this fellow, and you have nailed the sharpness. Of course, his catch is a bonus ( dragonflies always make great catches in images )

The colours on this species are very similar to the european bee-eaters.

Absolutely superb and tack sharp image of bee eater.Love the colors,pose with prey in beak,perch,BG and composition,All the composition look good.

Regards,
Satish.

A great image as posted and the reposts show some nice work as well. I was thinking more vertical to rid of the oof area of perch.. The bright area in the bg is a little distracting yet less distracting in Randy's repost. Great shot, wish I had one like it.

Great shot Vishal. Randys repost is nice and lessens the OOF branch. Everything else is spot on. Very nice.

Thanks friends for your suggestions and comments, was out 3 days may come back with more of these birds