I like the capture and think that you have done a great job on bring out details and colors. When I went to Africa I didn't even shoot in RAW. I used curves and did some dodging and burning to darken the background and I cropped some too.   Posted: 05/06/2023 14:41:24

Excellent action image and capture Kurt. I think that 1/500 time exposition is not that bad, I normally use that speed with car/moto racing and flying airplane. Maybe what would help in this kind of shooting is a tripod. I was in Kenya last October and there was a guy on our vehicle that was shooting mostly birds, with s Nikon and 800 mm long lens. And it was shooting without tripod. I didn't see any of his images but I would be very curios to do that. Also, what camera format are you using Kurt. That's another important consideration, the size of the subject most often is small. In any case to me your image looks pretty sharp. The exposition looks fine, as well as the composition. I busted a little bit the contrast. Forgive me I like colors well saturated. Good job.   Posted: 05/09/2023 09:41:09

Excellent action image and capture Kurt. I think that 1/500 time exposition is not that bad, I normally use that speed with car/moto racing and flying airplane. Maybe what would help in this kind of shooting is a tripod. I was in Kenya last October and there was a guy on our vehicle that was shooting mostly birds, with s Nikon and 800 mm long lens. And it was shooting without tripod. I didn't see any of his images but I would be very curios to do that. Also, what camera format are you using Kurt. That's another important consideration, the size of the subject most often is small. In any case to me your image looks pretty sharp. The exposition looks fine, as well as the composition. I busted a little bit the contrast. Forgive me I like colors well saturated. Good job.   Posted: 05/09/2023 09:41:09

Kurtis something must be wrong with my computer. Both your original and the edited version are very pixelated. But I can see that you got some great color birds fighting away. I will assume they are sharp. The composition is perfect. Looks like two different birds, do you know what they are?
  Posted: 05/16/2023 19:36:07

The left one is a Saddlebill Stork and the right is a Marabou Stork.   Posted: 05/16/2023 22:12:04

Kurtis, you were fortunate to see these birds and get such a great action shot, I love it! To me, dodging and burning around the frame does make the birds stand out more although, my eyes kept drifting up to the light colored horizonal strip of grass above the bird's head. So, I decided to used Gabriele's suggested image and toned down that area with the burn tool. Not sure though if the overall picture looks better but my eyes tend to spend more time on just the two birds. A terrific picture!!   Posted: 05/27/2023 13:50:24