Malachite Kingfisher

[Ken Watkins]

Taken on Lake Kariba, Matusadona National Park, Zimbabwe, 18th September 2010.

EOS 1D MkIV

500mm F4 IS hand-held from drifting boat

F7.1, ISO 400, 1/500

[Randy Stout]

Ken:

A handsome fellow, like the pose, but the small twigs coming off the perch tend to draw the attention. Background is nice, might tone down the gold blur RUC.
One other option to consider is knocking down some of the specular reflections on the bill.

Bit tight below.

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Fenton]

Interesting image.

Subject is beautifully colored. The reds / magenta's look quite hot but when I open it up in CS5, they are just ticking the far right side of the histogram. Perhaps it is the blown highhlights that throw my eyes off.

When I use the GAMUT WARNING, it does show the entire underside of the bill and most of the feet to be out of gamut.

Now...could well be that the bird is really this vividly colored!

Agree with randy that the crop is too tight on the lower left.

I would likely darken the yellows a bit and clone out the bright blob in the upper right and I'd loose the little whisp of what looks like a filament from a spider.

Would have liked a bit more of a head turn, but that's nitpicking.

Really cool subject :)

[Marc Mol]

One of my favourite African birds Ken.
You've handled the light quite well, would take out the top RH highlight also and add a tad more room all round (if it was possible?)
The bright reds on these little guys are always difficult to not blow out.

[Morkel Erasmus]

love the light on this fellow Ken and it is crackerjack sharp...I agree with Jim - maybe back off with saturation just a tad (although they are very vividly coloured!)...were you able to get a shot with the BG branches not so close to the head?

[wendell westfall]

Ken, very nice! It does seem a bit tight in the frame . . . and I would lose the twig just below the end of the beak as well as blur the semi-circular image in the upper right corner.

[Dudley Watson]

Lovely image with great colours and detail . ditto the lower left crop VWD Ken

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

wonderful image Ken, especially that this is not set-up. If anything, maybe may I suggest cloning out the twig directly under the tip of its bill? Congrats mate on a fine and NATURAL image. :)

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks for all of the great suggestions, this is quite a large crop and most of the BG is twigs.

Akos,

Thanks for your comments, whilst I do not mind doing a little gardening, I would never take a setup shot, and the owners of this lodge agree with me and refuse to bait the Fish Eagles