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Beautiful background, great colors, unique situation.  Well done!

Best regards,

Dennis

Dear Someone:  Terrific and creative capture!  Did you intend to have it horizontal, instead of the obvious vertical?  Nice sharpness, good control of the whites.  Well, it caught my eye, which is perhaps what you intended.  Well done!

Best regards,

Dennis

Did you see the look on that Carp's face?  Bad afternoon for him. 

Great shot, I'm envious.  This is a shot I've been trying to get, but no luck so far.  Do you care to share your technique on this photo?  Obviously,  a very high shutter speed was used, and a moderate aperture to keep the bird in focus while blurring the BG.  Thanks!

Best regards,

Dennis

Great shot.  I've not seen one quite this clear before.  Incredible depth of field.  Great color. Very well done!

I have seen these robber flies take town yellow jackets....which gives you an idea of how voracious and predatory these guys are.  If these were the size of cocker spaniels, it wouldn't be safe for us to go outside.

Best regards,

Dennis

Bird's left wingtip is cut off, and the bird looks like it is flying out of the frame.  Can you re-crop to adjust?  Otherwise, this is a very nice image.  Great light and OOF background.

Best regards,

Dennis

Hello Madeleine.  Very lovely composition with a unique and interesting format...you broke the "rule" of having more space in the direction in which the animal/bird is looking, but it really works well here.  I like this one for more than just the unique vision, though.  The light and the smooth water and background really make the GB Heron stand out against it.  Beautiful colors and the panoramic format are very effective.  Well done!

Best regards,

Dennis

They're all terrific Per, but I like this one the best because of the wing position and the  interesting background. 

Great job!

Best regards,

Dennis

Nice tight portrait, Karolina...  Very sharp and you have the composition right, with the bird just off center.  The only nitpick I would have is the specular highlights in the background.  I wonder if those could be toned down a bit in post processing?   Well done.

Best regards,

Dennis

Again, well done!  I like this one better than no. 1 because its eye is not partially blocked as in no. 1.  But both are stellar.

Best regards,

Dennis

Superb image and timing Per!  You were right to wait...the result is worth it and more.  Very sharp, great color, and great blue sky background.   I might try a very slightly tighter crop, taking just a bit off the left side and even less off the bottom, but not so much that the stork doesn't have space to jump down into.  But this is a personal choice and this photo is truly great nonetheless.  Well done!

Best regards,

Dennis

Well done Hanan!   It looks as if the bee eater just sat on his perch and waited for the moth to fly  by... nabbed!  Terrific timing and wonderful technique, by both you and the bird!  

Best regards,

Dennis

Agree with Joel's comments.  BTW, this is not a crane, but is a snowy egret.

Thanks and best regards,

Dennis

Very sharp -- incredible feather detail -- good color.  I would give (if possible) more space at the bottom, and include the left wing tip if it's in the original file.  Other than that, very well done.

Dennis

Phil,

I tried "blowing up" the photo on my screen by using the key combination <CTRL>+ on the keyboard, several times (<CTRL>0 returns to normal size).  It is definitely a small crab, but what species, I can't tell. 

Best regards,

Dennis

Hello Jerry,

A very nice tight portrait of this gorgeous snowy egret.  You have managed to control the exposure of the whites beautifully, which is often a bit tricky.  

A couple of very minor nitpicks: 1) you might try a different crop to allow more space to the left of the photo (right of the bird, the direction in which it is looking); and 2) suggest cloning out the white fluff at the tip of the bill (although this is a personal choice and one which I don't always do myself). 

Other than that, feather details and colors are great.

Best regards,

Dennis

Hi Phil,

I have to agree with the others...terrific capture.  A unique and interesting bird and composition.    Very sharp, and colors and exposure are spot on.  One has to contemplate what evolutionary pressure could have produced such a unique and slender bill...but undoubtedly effective for grabbing prey before it senses the danger.

Bad afternoon for the frog/crab though.   I'm trying to decide on what he was dining - could you tell?

Best regards,

Dennis

I'm not so sure about this image.  It seems too dark overall, the colors are muted, there is no real contact with the eye or eye highlight, and what's with the strong vignetting?  A rather ordinary shot of a common bird just sitting there.  Nothing really terribly special about it.

Dennis

Superb capture Mitchel....my two nitpicks are 1) the partially membrane-occluded eye, and 2) centered subject in the frame.   Can't do much about the former, but perhaps a slightly different crop would give him some space to look into within the frame. 

Gorgeous bird though.  Very well done!

Best regards,

Dennis

Nice and sharp, José.  It would be better slightly off-center, perhaps giving more space to the right side of the photo.  Other than that, very well done.

Best regards,

Dennis

Hi Christina,

Nice capture, makes me smile.  Kind of reminds me of a neighbor's dog which greets me when I return to the house.

Regarding the photo...I wish the right eye of the bird (at the left side of the photo) and the right cheek were a bit brighter, and I wish the tip of the bill were in focus as well as the eyes.  The former is most likely fixable in post, but the latter is not.  However, those nitpicks aside, the composition and positioning of the bird's head are good.  Good noise control at this high of an ISO too.   Well done.

Best regards,

Dennis

Michael, I had to smile when I saw this.  He(she) looks as though he is contemplating a long lifetime of catching fish and making little pelicans....and as if to say "Ah yes, I was born a pelican...the highest and most intelligent form of life on the planet".   

About the photo:  I like the great light and the feather detail.   The contrast between the white bird and the aquamarine background is beautiful.  Well done.

Best regards,

Dennis

Els, there are to my eye some good things about this shot and some things which could be improved.   First of all, it's a nice capture of an interesting aspect about the bird's life.  You have eye contact, and the exposure seems spot on.  It's an arresting capture which caught my eye.  I like the contrast between the black bird and the reddish hair of the horse.

Now, the background is to my eye a little too much in focus, and to a small extent distracts from the main subject, but it's not a major issue.  To address this issue, you could in post apply a quick mask to the background and apply a Gaussian blur.  When I view the larger version of the image, the background seems to have a lot of noise.  You mentioned that this is a crop, so I suspect that is the main cause of the noise.  You could perhaps use a bit stronger noise reduction on the background to mitigate that aspect, or if you do apply a Gaussian blur, that should take care of this issue also.

A more important compositional issue is that there is more space to the right of the bird than there is to the left, the direction in which the bird is facing.  If this is a crop, perhaps there is a possibility of re-cropping to remove space to the right, and move the bird to the right in the frame, giving a bit more "head space" for the bird.

Despite these issues, I find the image very pleasing.  Well done.

Best regards,

Dennis

I like this a lot Irene.  Good job thinking unconventionally....this is a great photo of a bird and of the environment in which it lives.  I don't think you need to crop this any further.   Good color and nice light too.  The background is sufficiently out of focus to not distract from the main subject.  Very well done!

Best regards,

Dennis

Excellent photo Kristin.  Good feather detail and superb colors.  I like the crop with the foliage at the bottom, giving us an idea of the environment, and you have an excellent monotonic background with good contrast.  You've also placed the bird slightly right of center...very well done.

Best regards,

Dennis

Hi Louise, 

The problem is the strong backlight, resulting in bright highlights through the branches. 

Perhaps a tighter crop plus some post-process vignetting?  It doesn't look like you have much room at the top and bottom for additional cropping though.  In Lightroom, I might try the adjustment brush, decreasing the exposure and highlights sliders.

I don't think you can burn in (darken) the specular highlights very much without an unsatisfactory result.  Perhaps the best thing is to hope the bird returns at a different time without the strong backlight.  If you face the same situation, try some frontal fill flash at nearly full power.  That should result in a properly exposed bird and darker background, especially when the bright sky highlights are far back from the subject.  To do this, you will undoubtedly need a more powerful external flash and possibly a flash extender.

Best regards,

Dennis