Black Korhaan

[botspur]

During a recent visit to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans there were great numbers of the Northern Black Korhaan, one about every one hundred metres. We were driving around for hours trying to photograph these birds that were mocking us with their raucous call. At last out of the blue this male decided to pose for us, although we were nearly deafened by his high volume call the opportunity to photograph was gladly taken.





C&C most welcome.

[Jack R Mann]

Nice capture's. like #1 best lets me see what lyon are hearing!

[jamn4ex]

Great shots A day well spent. I like # 2 best

[raghunath]

Excellent composition of picture #2. The color gamut is stunning!

[Geoff F]

Is the first one full size or a crop, Clive?

Personally, I would say that there is a little bit too much space above the bird. But cropping may result in having a square photo. Although nothing wrong with that and some people specifically shoot for that layout.

The alternative, if there is sufficient space on the original, would be to crop something like 5 x 4 ratio. I usually find that a little extra space at the sides isn't so noticeable as having it at the top.

A well focused and exposed shot though.

Also with the second one, I would crop away some of that sky. Having a bit of dark sky really 'sets the scene in context' but I find that so much out of focus sky is distracting. But getting it sharp obviously wasn't an option here.

For me, cropping away at least half the sky would concentrate more on the bird, but still leave sufficient dark cloud to make an attractive photo. In this case you should have sufficient space for a number of crop ratios.

[botspur]

Hi Jack, James and raghunath, thanks for the comments.
Hi Geoff, the picture is cropped and #1 I will have a look at the original again and try your suggestions, but I think there were some distracting twigs in the way!! #2 interesting comment about the sky and I totally see what you mean and will look at the various options. I must admit I did play a lot with the cropping on this image but now with your input it helps to clarify a bit of confusion. I think the bird is the subject and not the sky and should be shown as such?