Kingfishers mating

[dennis greenwood]

This shot was taken while I was sat in my portable hide in the middle of a river, I spotted the birds a few days before mating on a branch,then the day after on a perch I set up for the bird to land on ,on that occasion they had their backs to me ,a great scene to witness but no shots,.....when I heard the female calling after she landed on the rock I knew their was a chance the male may come in ,I had to turn round in the hide and get the lens through the side opening with out disturbing the bird as well as getting the camera of the tripod , shot was taken handheld at 1/250 sec ISO 800 5.6 400mm with a canon 1d mkiii https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7331/9093181672_eb7a8a5797_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisgreenwood/9093181672/)
Mating Kingfishers 16th June lancashire wildlife (https://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisgreenwood/9093181672/) by den9112 (https://www.flickr.com/people/dennisgreenwood/), on Flickr

[William Dickson]

Really rewarded bigstyle Dennis for all your planning. Lovely moment to be captured Well done

[keith mitchell]

Hi Dennis, you did very well to capture this action shot, there does seem to be a bit of distortion(noise?) on the feathersand females lower beak, and maybe a tad oversharpend ,could all be down to these old eyes of mine, if so please ignore.

[dennis greenwood]

Hi Dennis, you did very well to capture this action shot, there does seem to be a bit of distortion(noise?) on the feathersand females lower beak, and maybe a tad oversharpend ,could all be down to these old eyes of mine, if so please ignore. Hi,this was a large crop with minimal sharpening ,I very rarely go over 90% with my sharpening ,I do have a few of these images and I may just in my haste posted one of the weaker ones

[keith mitchell]

Dennis I understand what you say about doing things in haste, often do it myself, still a great catch.

Keith.

[Aidan Briggs]

A great moment captured, at 1/250th you were lucky this was sharp at all! Nice exposure and low angle. There seems to be some funky post-processing going on with the birds looking rather noisy and the rest of the image smooth and detailess. Maybe a little less sharpening for the birds and a little less NR on the BG, then again, it could just be the quality is being effected by the large crop.

Looking forward to more!

[Arthur Morris]

A sweet moment indeed. The large crop explains the image quality issues. Please include the camera, lens, ISO, and expsure settings when you post an image for critiquing.

[dennis greenwood]

A sweet moment indeed. The large crop explains the image quality issues. Please include the camera, lens, ISO, and expsure settings when you post an image for critiquing.
Hi, exif info was included on the post ....

[Marina Scarr]

Great behavior captured here!!!! Wish there were less noise and a cleaner BG. That said, I would have been very happy just to see and photograph this behavior!!!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi, exif info was included on the post ....

Thanks. I only looked carefully for it 3 times :)....