Malachite Kingfisher

[Glenn Pure]

171996
Taken from a boat on one of the myriad waterways in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. I posted a sunset version of this a while back - this one was taken earlier in the same day and inspired me to go out and get that sunset shot. In that earlier thread, Gail Bisson described these as like 'little jewels'. Such an apt description as they are so tiny and so wonderfully coloured. These birds love perching on thick reeds not far above the water as they wait for their next meal. Crop is 75% of the frame area (a bit off the top and right: bird originally centred in frame).

Thanks you for looking and any comments you may wish to share.

Capture details: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/1600 sec, f7.1, ISO 800. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Very light NR applied to bird and stronger NR to background. Main subject only sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian blur) after final size reduction.

[Tim Foltz]

Glenn, nice shot of this little jewel, processing looks good, nice BG and details, wish the HA was a bit better, looks like its slightly facing away.
Do you have room for a vertical crop?

-Tim

[gail bisson]

When I saw this image on thumbnail I thought "I don't remember posting this". I swear I have an image that is identical to this. Even the BG reeds are similar.
Anyway, back to the critique...
Love the bird, the light and the IQ. I like your comp and I remember trying a vertical comp on the image I have and I didn't like it as much as the landscape orientation.
I don't know if you did anything to the BG but the reeds and grasses are beautiful- soft, dreamy and wispy. They do not distract at all from the KF.
Yes to a slightly better HA.
Gail

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Wonderfull capture, Glenn. Amazing rich feather colors on such a beautiful pastel background. Like the warm quality of light. Love the color of the feet matching the beak.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Glenn, Yep, these little jewels are so colourful, and you have captured and brought out the colours perfectly. I really like the lines in the BG, as well as the varied colours.

If one has never seen a Malachite, you would never realise how small these guys are. Aren't I fortunate living in SA to see these little jewels. :w3

[Joseph Przybyla]

Nice work, Glenn. I love the color palette of the image, it shows off the bird well. Nice simple composition works well. Thank you for sharing.

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you all for your comments. Yes, they are tiny Stu and you are very lucky living somewhere close to them. Perhaps you could share a few frames? One thing I missed photographing was these 'little jewels' flying ahead of the boat along the cleared waterways. They would often lead the boat for 100 metres or more before diverting off into the reeds again.



I don't know if you did anything to the BG but the reeds and grasses are beautiful- soft, dreamy and wispy. They do not distract at all from the KF.
Yes to a slightly better HA.
Gail

Thanks Gail but oddly, I wasn't sure about the background in this one so I was a little surprised to hear votes of approval for it. I didn't do anything to the background - just how it looked in the original frame.

[Frank sheets]

Glen, nice image. Great "dreamy" BG for this magnificent little KF. Would love to see one in the wild some day. Thx for the post!

[William Dickson]

Hi Glenn. Love this image The BG colours are really nice and they show the KF real well. The perch 'fits' in with the image, and the details on the bird are wonderful. Beautiful colours throughout. I wouldn't want to crop any of this BG, as it is so nice. I think you chose the right crop, the colours are so nice on the bird, that it looks good, small in frame, and my eyes are immediately drawn to it. Well done.

Will