Malachite Kingfisher

[Stu Bowie]

These guys are really fairly small. My good mate Gerrie gave me a go with his 600mm lens, to try and achieve a decent image from these little guys. I was also fortunate that the BG was as shot, as these guys tend to perch in busy BG's. The BG is OOF water.

Canon 50D
600mm +1.4 TC @ 840mm
1/1000
F/5.6
ISO 200

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand Held ( at a struggle )

[Doug Brown]

I like the clean BG, nice light, and excellent sharpness. I wish the bird occupied more of the frame, although I do like the look of a small kingfisher on the end of a long slender perch. I'd still be tempted to crop the bright part of the perch at the bottom of the frame. Beautiful bird!

[joel quenneville]

Great colors and light, Stuart! You have a nice smooth BG and a nice perch. I would have liked a pose that showed more of the tail and eye but I like it as is. I love the vibrant blues, oranges and greens.

Hand held??!!!!!:eek::eek::eek: Wow!

[denise ippolito]

Stuart, Beautiful details throughout and nice clean BG. I like your composition w/ the slender perch. The colors are fantastic.Very well done.

[Harshad Barve]

Amazing bird , awesome perch & killer BG
colors are so good , 600m HH , OMG
TFS

[Grace Scalzo]

Beautiful, Stuart. My favorite image of yours! I really like the gray/blue background and the way you've composed it shows the relative smallness of the bird, but agree with Doug on a small crop from the bottom. I think I'm seeing some wide halos, esp around the base of the perch. Do you have more of this species?

[Juan Aragonés]

Another superb kingfisher image and species Stuart. A very simple and efective composition. Nice pose of the bird with the ruffled feathers and the great eye contact.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much guys and girls.

Grace, yes I do. I have processed an image from an entirely different perch, and he is facing me. I will definately post it soon.

[Jeni Williams]

Beautiful colours on a clean bg. WD Stu!!

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the KF's relatively small stature in the frame, and I like that you tucked in the ULC on top of the long slender perch...works for me. You were playing with fire handholding this set-up with only ISO 200! Don't be afraid to raise it a bit to give yourself more wiggle room when it comes to equipment shake (although sharpeness as posted looks great) :-)

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice one Stu! if you want closer shots you'll have to go to Marievale :)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the simplicity of the image, the colors of the bird are amazing and I would love to see a larger version.

[Glenda Simmons]

IMO, Just a little off the bottom, would still give the "long slender perch" appearence and showcase your beautiful bird a little better. Great job!

[Mital Patel]

too good to have as long time image. superb light and perch is just awesome. nicely captured..

[Kiran Poonacha]

Superb one Brother, just loved the comp, the colours and the crown on the birds looks great... congrats..

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much for the kind words.

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Great image Stu! Like the pose, head angle, detail & colours. Well done mate!

[Suzanne Huot]

A real jewel of an image ,and how perfectly well named is the subject kingfisher posted here.
One might be tempted to crop a little more off the bottem of his perch

[Rob Drummond]

Beautiful Stuart - you've really captured the essence of this little bird as I remember it - a jewel of colour sitting on an improbably small perch gently swaying in the breeze.

cheers
Rob

[Simon Bennett]

Wonderful capture and bird.

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

Stuart
Beautiful bird, perfect exposure, lovely Bkgd, and excellent sharpness

This becomes an exercise in cropping/composition. Your other two choices were add more blue Bkgd on top putting the bird in LLC or crop more off the bottom and right side creating more of a vertical composition with the bird in the centre or slightly to the left

Because the lower perch doesn't add anything to the photo for me , I'd concur with Doug and Glenda for a tighter crop focusing on the bird - but it becomes personal preferences

Either way , a great picture - nicely done and thanks for sharing
Peter