One from the weekend away.

[Bill44]

Scaly Breasted Lorikeet.

[The Blue Boy]

Very nice. I particulaly like the composition of this. Is it a crop? If it is well done.

[Dave Humphries]

Bill,

I am intrigued, are these birds "in the wild" but quite common and approachable, or do you have to go somewhere special to get these amazing close ups?

Thanks,

[Bill44]

@ Mark & Dave.

This is a full frame shot using a 300mm(450) lens with fill flash stopped down 1 stop, early in the morning.
These are wild birds in a specific location. They come to feed in this spot for about 10-15 minutes each morning and, like some flocking birds, are not excessively disturbed by a human presence. The shots are not as sharp as I would have liked because the birds rarely settle for more than a few seconds, so it's a matter of snatching a shot where you can with a high throw away percentage.

The following shot is also full frame.

[ajith.rajeswari]

Nice framing and a sharp shot Bill, have you sharpened it ? (first pic)
~Ajith

[Bill44]

Yes mate, it's been sharpened. I'm not pleased with the shots myself and next time I will change my technique. As stated before, I was shooting with fill flash due to the early morning conditions shooting towards the rising sun. Next time I'm going to forget the background light, up the iso to 800, speed 1/200 @ f8, fry them with the flash, and try and get them a bit sharper. Camera shake was my problem this time.