Sunbird on Coral

Canon EOS 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM, Aperture Priority @ f/8 (1/800 sec), 0 EV, ISO 640, Tripod, JPEG from RAW, About 50% of Full Frame

Another marvellous species of African Sunbird I spent more than a few hours attempting to photograph while at camps in the Kruger National Park (South Africa) last September was this (male) White-Bellied Sunbird.

Far from easy to capture, as is the case with most Sunbirds, but I did manage to return with a few images that I'm rather pleased with, and I think this one is my favourite, not only for the pose, detail (which you'll be able to see much better in the larger version), eye clarity, and just the right amount if illumination on it's beautiful iridescent colours, but also for the head of the coral flower complete and in full bloom.

At first I thought the orange of the flower was too intense, even though this is very much as I recall them being at the time, so after making a careful selection of it I tried to tone it down some by lowering the brightness, desaturation, as well as one or two other things. However, anything beyond the absolute minimum seemed to make it appear more and more unnatural, so in the end I decided to leave the colour adjustment well alone.

It works well enough for me, though I'd be very interested to read your thoughts and opinions.

Wishing you all a great weekend ahead :^)