Perfect Landing

Canon EOS 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM, Shutter Priority @ f/4 (1/1250 sec), 0 EV, ISO 400, Tripod, JPEG from RAW, Cropped about 50% from Full Frame

Subject: Indian Roller

Situation: Although this Indian Roller was shot at my local zoo, it is in fact one of many bird species that chooses to fly into the vicinity, nest, feed, and roost freely; i.e. it's living completely in the wild.

As some of you may already be aware from previous photos I've posted, I have something of an ongoing project with Indian Rollers – not to mention a great love for them as a species! – the main aim of which is to capture pictures of them in flight with full display of their magnificently coloured wings.

This project is still a work in progress and I feel each new session I spend with them (which in the past has meant anywhere between four to six hours at a time, and I've had several sessions like this so far) brings me closer to my goal.

While I have a few actual in-flight shots that aren't too bad (need to add canvas in one or two cases, something I still have to find time to do!), I have a few like this where I caught the wingspread I wanted but the subject was holding onto the perch, either while coming into land or just taking off, and of course this is one of those.

For better (as it probably is for the bush) or worse (for photographers like me!), on this particular bush the people at the zoo have rigged up a kind of watering system by way of threading a black and translucent yet grimy yellow-coloured plastic hose through the bush and the twigs that run off it, which is kind of unattractive to say the least. So to make the most of this photo I cloned all of that out. In addition, I cloned the end of the perch that actually stretched fully out of the frame on the left-hand side, as I felt this also made for a more pleasing picture and composition.

I understand that this kind of work would not be acceptable for most competitions, which is fine by me, as my main aim is to create beautiful and captivating images others will enjoy so much as presented that they feel compelled to purchase a print for themselves … or a family member, perhaps a friend, maybe their boss, heck, why not the president! ;^p

Critique and comments always welcome :^)

P.S. Today is the last day of school for my daughter and ahead of us we have seven weeks of summer holidays, during which time we plan on making at least a couple of road trips to national parks here in Thailand. This being the case, it's unlikely I'll be able to find the time to post anything more up for a while, something I thought I'd mention just so it doesn't appear like I've suddenly dropped off the face of the planet ;^)