During one of our drives into the Yala National Park, we came across an Indian Roller that had caught a grasshopper and was trying to swallow it. We have captured the first episode of this Yala experience, here where you can see the Roller repeatedly beat the grasshopper to the ground in an attempt to break its wings. While the action made for some interesting viewing, it wasn’t that good from a photography perspective since the Roller was perched on the ground and we were photographing it from a Land Cruiser. The slanted camera angle resulted in not so great bokeh (the aesthetic appeal of the blur), rendering the images average. A clean bokeh can transform images to a great extent.
After being satisfied that it had beaten its catch into pulp on the ground, the Roller flew to the comfort of a nearby bush to eat its meal peacefully. That was the lucky break that we were waiting for since the perch was almost at eye level angle from the back of the Land Cruiser. This resulted in a clean bokeh that significantly improved the quality of the images.
