Sherry Icardi  


Breakfast on the Beak by Sherry Icardi

December 2019 - Breakfast on the Beak

About the Image(s)

This was taken in Samburu National reserve in Kenya last month. Wonderful trip and so many good images. We saw a greta variety of birds and the Little Bee Eater was the first one we spotted. Just so happens it was having breakfast while we were shooting. This was taken with my D500 and 80-400mm lens. Details:
F/8.0 1/2500 sec at 400mm and ISO 1250. I found that I shot at very high ISO’s while there because you are frequently dealing with deep brush and shade because the animals prefer the coolness of the shade. Post processing was pretty simple, cropping and noise reduction. If you have not tried it, the new TOPAZ DENOISE AI is pretty awesome


This round’s discussion is now closed!
9 comments posted




Dave Edwards   Dave Edwards
(Group 51)
Very sharp image of the bird. Good control of depth of field to make the bird stand out. As I read the description my first thought was the shutter speed was fast enough to lower the ISO. Then I read on and realized why you used ISO 1250. I imagine that birds are quite fast and don't wait for you to change the settings. Good job!   Posted: 12/08/2019 11:19:42
Sherry Icardi   Sherry Icardi
(Groups 73 & 94)
The reason I had the shutter speed so high was I was trying to get the bird in flight. We saw him flying and they tend to flit a lot, so I kept the shutter speed high thinking he would take off again, then of course I realized he had the bee in his mouth and knew no more flight shots for him until he had managed to consume the bee :-). That took a while since they remove the stinger by hitting the bee against a branch. Though it is interesting since according the the reference I checked African bees do not have stingers. Go figure.   Posted: 12/10/2019 13:25:33



Shirley Ward   Shirley Ward
Another great bird doing it's thing...eating....Having been there many years ago, I tried to shoot the Bee Eaters, but, I never got anything close to this image, as most were on a river bank with a lot of distractions..Still, they were fun to watch...   Posted: 12/08/2019 23:18:56
Sherry Icardi   Sherry Icardi
(Groups 73 & 94)
They are always somewhere near the river bank. That is the only place we saw them. I was surprized at how clean this background came out. Particularly since it was taken at F/8. But I wanted to make sure I got the whole bird sharp. I have found the sharpest image is usually 2 stops up from the maximum aperture and in this case it is 5.6 so I stopped it up to eight.   Posted: 12/10/2019 13:39:51



Ian Cambourne   Ian Cambourne
(Groups 35 & 73 & 76)
Bravo !!!!   Posted: 12/09/2019 03:19:38
Sherry Icardi   Sherry Icardi
(Groups 73 & 94)
Thanks Ian...I love this image. So clean and sharp!   Posted: 12/10/2019 13:40:17



Marilyn Ross   Marilyn Ross
This photo is a WOW. Great capture with good DOF. The bird's color, its red eye and the bee all enhance the photo. Well done.   Posted: 12/21/2019 18:19:43



 
Well done - great picture. I might crop the bottom a little.   Posted: 12/30/2019 15:14:52



Adelet Kegley   Adelet Kegley
Agree this is a WOW photo. Excellent work.   Posted: 12/31/2019 22:31:17