Malachite Kingfisher

[Chris van Rooyen]

Another image from my recent trip to the Okavango. The kingfishers nested right where the boats anchored. We had a perfect situation for an extended practical demonstration of fill flash with backlight conditions:)

Camera Model: NIKON D3S
Date/Time: 2010:09:27 12:21:43
Shutter speed: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Manual
Exposure compensation: -1/3
Flash: TTL -1/3
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 900
Lens: 500mm with 1.7X converter
Focal length: 850mm

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Nice looking bird with beautiful colors/details!

[stuart wanuck]

lovely lovely what can i say?

[David Gancarz]

I never tire of seeing photos of these beautiful birds. I really like the composition with the framing leaves plus the bird looking over the center leaf. Technicals are, as always, superb!

[Scott Frye]

Gorgeous colors. I would tone down the bright green light just off the beak -- what a nice range of colors in this picture

[Bhushan Dalvi]

Chris, this is a great capture of beautiful bird. Love the colors.

[Tony Whitehead]

Great flash work, Chris - sounds like a great opportunity. DOF has covered the bird well. How are you finding the 1.7x. I have used it a fair bit and am finding myself preferring the 1.4x and cropping a bit more as I find the D3/D700 files seem to put up with cropping amazingly well. For extra reach I use the D300 unless I need the high ISO.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Beautiful bird. Fill flash worked great for this one. Nice inclusion of leaves.

[subramanya_ck]

What a colorful KF. Love the HA & BKGR. Those leaves are adding more life to this image

[Harshad Barve]

What a beauty this is , I am loving this image, Techs spot on as usual , We were lucky to see and photograph this KF in Mara ,
TFS

[Geraldo Hofmann]

Simply perfect Chris Congratulations!!

[Chris van Rooyen]

thanks guys, much appreciated. Tony I find the 1.7X pretty impressive. I must add that I had to do serious micro-adjustment on the 600/1.4x (20 points) and 600/1.7x to get it pin sharp. I really suggest that you look into that if you are not getting the sharpness you expect.

[Tony Whitehead]

Tony I find the 1.7X pretty impressive. I must add that I had to do serious micro-adjustment on the 600/1.4x (20 points) and 600/1.7x to get it pin sharp. I really suggest that you look into that if you are not getting the sharpness you expect.
Thanks for the advice, Chris. I will look at the micro-adjustment. The reason I tend to favor the 1.4 is focussing speed which I find significantly different for mobile subjects.

[Rod Warnock]

Simply superb, Chris !! Feather definition and colour rendition spot on.
Congratulations and thanks
Best regards
Rod Warnock