Cindy Marple
December 2025 - Big Bill, Big Bug
Original
About the Image(s)
Big Bill, Big Bug
About: Walking around one of our lodges in Namibia I found this Monteiro’s Hornbill attempting to swallow the Giant Armored Cricket it had caught. It repeatedly tossed the cricket, I presume trying to re-orient to enable swallowing. It moved away and I didn’t see if it ever got it down.
Nikon Z8, 400mm, 1/320 f/5.6 ISO1000
Processing: warmed up the White Balance, used a subject mask on the bird to increase the clarity and the black point to get a bit more contrast in the bird since it was in the shade. But I wanted less contrast in the background with the sunny spots, so reduced clarity there. Added a small negative vignette, denoise in Topaz.
6 comments posted
Wow, Cindy! This may be your best capture yet! I love the action and the aperture sets the focal zone perfectly. It's also a bird and a bug I've never seen before. Beautiful!
Posted: 12/10/2025 22:07:44
Posted: 12/10/2025 22:07:44
Cindy - This is a terrific shot, I agree with Bud, one of your best! Great perspective and good detail where you needed detail. I thought the image could pop more, so in my VF, I selected the subject, inverted the mask LR and reduced the highlights about 2/3rds for the entire background. Again, in LR, I darkened the exposure on the rocks in the lower right using the Linear Gradient Tool and lastly, I brightened the subject's eye. I realize that may sound like a lot, but it's not really - the essence was there- my goal is to highlight/reveal the best part of an image not to change the image. Posted: 12/11/2025 21:22:24
Thanks Butch. I like the brighter eye and darker foreground and will play with that some more. Posted: 12/13/2025 22:55:36
There is certainly a great deal of immediate visual impact. Part of this impact comes from separation of the subject from the background and then of course the sheer size of the subject. This is a fine image but I still like your stilt k
and chicks image from the early summer better.
But there is NO doubt that you nailed the title. :-)
For me the only drawback is that the large rocks in the foreground a a bit out of focus and their sheer size makes them a distraction.
Posted: 12/12/2025 20:51:58
and chicks image from the early summer better.
But there is NO doubt that you nailed the title. :-)
For me the only drawback is that the large rocks in the foreground a a bit out of focus and their sheer size makes them a distraction.
Posted: 12/12/2025 20:51:58
Yeah I wish it'd been in a better setting- the feet were hidden in many of the frames of the series. Posted: 12/13/2025 22:58:10
Cindy,
What a moment! Love how you caught the bug about to get swallowed! My suggestions for improvement fall along the lines of what Butch showed us. There is a need to contrast the bird with its background. I would also crop out or clone out the small green twig on the right. Posted: 12/18/2025 15:22:46
What a moment! Love how you caught the bug about to get swallowed! My suggestions for improvement fall along the lines of what Butch showed us. There is a need to contrast the bird with its background. I would also crop out or clone out the small green twig on the right. Posted: 12/18/2025 15:22:46