This is a green toucanet I captured in Costa Rica. My upcoming photo tour in May to this beautiful Central American country focuses on birds because the photography is simply outstanding. Costa Rica has 850 species of birds -- 10% of the world's population! Sometimes we get tight shots of exotic birds because they are drawn to feeders -- fruit, seeds, etc. -- and other times, such as when I took this picture, a bird flies within telephoto range and simple poses, quite unexpectedly. My settings for this shot were 1/400, f/5.6, and 3200 ISO, and I used a 400mm focal length. Birds with pronounced beaks look most imposing and dramatic when their head is either turned 90 degrees to the lens axis or is at an oblique angle to that axis. This makes the depth of field issue manageable. If the beak points toward the camera, and you focus on the eyes, there will be a massive out of focus center portion in the frame, and I think that is definitely undesirable.
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