Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Underneath the (rainbow) arches


Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus) takes a comfort stretch against a grey sky in Tyto yesterday. The bird stayed put on a bare branch as I sidled up along a wooden walkway/bridge close to the over-brimming first lagoon.

Bee-eaters rarely show so willing. It went through a repertoire of bill-clacking and wing-twisting exercises, mostly with head turned away from me. Luckily, waiting and hoping paid off with the above happy alignment of head, body and movement.

Didn't envisage having to lighten the image so much that the grey sky almost vanished into the now-whitish background. Nor at first was I going to retain all three branches. Sometimes the final offering simply grows more (subjectively) attractive in spite of a picture's technical faults.

3 comments:

  1. I really like the impression of movement - very nice photo indeed!

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  2. That's lovely Tony, you've captured the bird's colours perfectly and as mentioned above by Mick the impression of movement makes the photo very nice. I just love watching bee-eaters - never tire of them.

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  3. Thanks Mick and Barbara. Just been out trying to get sunset shots of RBEs, but they weren't in their usual evening spots.

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