Striking Head Shots II

Canon EOS 7D, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, Shutter Priority @ f/4 (1/100 sec), -1/3 EV, ISO 400, Handheld, JPEG from RAW, Cropped about 40% from Full Frame

Subject: Bushy-Crested Hornbill

Although I've been fortunate enough to see and even photograph Bushy-Crested Hornbills in the wild, for better or worse this is the best opportunity I've had to capture their marvellous detail.

Much as I would have preferred to capture this shot out in the wild, I still like this image a lot for the dignified pose it appears to be offering, kind of like in-spite of it in captivity it holds it's head up high.

This one has an enclosure of it's own, and while it's thankfully not too cramped it is much smaller than the main avery of course, which makes it difficult to take photos that disguise or eliminate the unnatural-looking wire of the enclosure directly behind the subject. The background here might not be the most favourable, but there's something in the way that it's blurred and the diamond-like pattern almost framing the subject that I do find appealing, and the lighter grey tone seems to harmonise well with the colours of the subject, hence the reason why it remains in my collection.

In order to completely blur out the wire separating the Hornbill and me, I had to press the end of my lens up against the fence itself, which offered the additional benefit of stabilizing my handheld shot.

Critique and comments most welcome :^)