Molten Gold

[Amit Gupta]

Golden Babbler

Eaglenest wildlife sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, March 2010. Hills covered with dense Evergreen Forests, combined with unpredictable broken clouds and lots of restless small birds made for a very challenging (photographically) trip. Was lucky to catch this guy very close, in a bush near the road.

EOS 40D+ EF400L, handheld, 1/800; f5.6; ISO640

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Lovely, I like the image a lot. Love the way the bird's face is lit. Nice eye contact. TFS. Canon 400mm f5.6 L, right?

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Hi Amit,
Good to see an image of the Golden babbler (Stachyris chrysaea chrysaea). Lovely bird. The eye contact is fine. I have never been to Eaglenest, but have heard the light conditions are challenging. May be I will plan sometime soon. Do you have a vertical composition? A higher shutter speed would have been even better. I would have preferred ISO 800 over ISO 640, as the intermediate ISOs in canon result in more noise.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice eye contact. The open beak is a plus. Photographing these birds in a dense bush is tough. You got it nicely. Thanks for sharing.

[Amit Gupta]

Abhishek, yes, this is with the EF 400L f5.6.

Sabyasachi, sorry no vertical. This was my first visit to the NE, Eaglenest was akin to a pilgrimage as a birding enthusiast. I consciouly tried to keep it a "birding first, photo second" trip. Light(ing?) can be very variable any time of the day, from one direction to the next and small clouds passing by all the time!

Regards.

[Bibhav Behera]

The spotlighting looks good. Thanks for sharing the bird. Using ISO 800 would have been better. Thanks for sharing.