A few birds from my honeymoon

I think image #2, (image 0793), looks like a Kori Bustard ...... that's the perfect habitat for the bird ........ also seen in S Africa ....... funny birds and the largest Bustard, apparently their numbers are decreasing

nice Giant Kingfisher

I think the other is a Brown Hooded Kingfisher - but you need to pull the whites back so that we can see the brown cap

I recognise the Starling, but what did you ID #1 as - some kind of Weaver?
 
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Great set!! Need to get myself to Kenya! I was surprised how much birdlife I saw in the Kalahari dessert, recommend it if you get a chance!
 
Just been looking through your album on Flickr, well jealous!

Would love to go there.

Was it a photography based workshop for your honeymoon? Or, did you just manage to get lots of fantastic pics on safari?
 
While there are some nice, colourful species depicted here and these must have been great to see, I feel the composition lets them down a great deal. A loose rule is to have more space to the side of the frame the subject is looking/moving into. These are slap bang in the centre if the frame which rarely works in these type if shots.

Try to get away from the temptation to stick the subject in the middle of the frame and consider a more pleasing composition, this will improve the overall appeal and quality of the end product. This can quite often be achieved by cropping in PP as well as in camera framing.
 
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Morning Darren, just a few comments and an edit, (which I hope you do not mind me attempting).

in the lighting conditions found in Africa it is important to really control the shadows and highlights in camera as it is easy to blow the whites and blacks to a stage where there is very little information left to recover in pp .... and contrary to some of what has been said in another thread, looking at the histogram is useful in this context ........ (spot metering is good but try + and - EV values to adjust exposure)

also, I know that it can seldom be possible to get into the best position, (light wise), but it is important to consider this a lot more than say in the UK

if you look at, for example, your Superb Starling, which has wonderful colours, you can improve the image by a few adjustments in pp ... obviously you can do better with the original file

you have such wonderful shots from your trip ...... it is good to do them justice by careful processing and composition ..... which can be done because of the marvellous flexibility of digital

I have looked at your Flickr and there are some wonderful shots which bring out the enjoyment of your trip

Superb_3.jpg
 
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Thank you all for the feedback. I don't normally shoot birds at all but I'll definitely take onboard all the help and advice you've given. :)
Wezza13 it was just a normal tour guided safari but hopefully one day we can go back and I'd love to take a photography workshop safari. We were very lucky seeing the big 5 and more! I'd recommend it to anyone.
 
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