Pied Kingfisher (Mankwe)

[Dumay de Boulle]

Canon 1D MKIII
Canon 500 f4 L IS
AV f5.6
TV 1/2500
ISO 800
AWB
Evaluative Metering
Subject Distance 10.1m
RAW file processed in CS5 iMac

Comments and crits as always appreciated:S3:

[Ken Watkins]

Great detail in this one, together with exceptional BG makes this just right for me.

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image with nice BG and details
TFS

[Randy Stout]

Dumay:

Excellent portrait, with nice detail, angle in frame, BG.

If he held the pose for a bit, I would have tried smaller f/stop for more DOF. You certainly had some shutter speed you could trade off. The DOF is very effective as is, but would have been fun to see what you could get.

One of the challenges I always face when in the field, in the heat of the moment, is to keep thinking and once I have a few good ones in the can, so to speak, to change up my settings and comp to try and get it even better, or at least different.

Cheers

Randy

[Dumay de Boulle]

Thanks Randy...I agree with your comments. I was trying to get a take off image and snapped off a few while waiting, but never got the take off as he went off in the wrong direction:e3:S3:

[Chris Kotze]

Super pose detail and BG colour. Well captured , yip things don't always work in our favour.:bg3:

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose, sharp details anda sweet BG, you nailed this, love it!

[Stu Bowie]

Hey Dumay, how can you tell the folk these guys take off in the wrong direction - never happened to me. :w3 Jep I agree, thats really annoying when that happens. Excellent exposure, sharp, and I do like the typical pose. Great Mankwe BG.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Hey Dumay that 500 is really starting to get you excellent results:bg3: Lovely image TFS:cheers: :cheers:

[Dumay de Boulle]

Thanks for the comments guys...Vivaldo, I wish I went for the 500 a long time ago...I love the lens!:S3:

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Dumay, excellent shot...all angles... shooting, light, bird and head....are spot on. So is exposure, BG, subject size, subject placement and sharpness. I see what you mean by going for the take-off shot. At times, we do have to compromise on DOF based on our wishful thinking :-) Since the OOF stuff is not between viewer and subject, I dont mind the shallow DOF much. Thx for sharing such a beautiful portrait.

[Tom Rambaut]

One of the challenges I always face when in the field, in the heat of the moment, is to keep thinking and once I have a few good ones in the can, so to speak, to change up my settings and comp to try and get it even better, or at least different.

Cheers

Randy

One of the best bits of advise I've seen on here. The heat of the moment mentality has led me to not get the most out of the situation. In post I'm looking at the shallow depth of field and a high SS for a static subject and think well that could have been done better. At the time I'm thinking that the situation in front of me will not last long so just getting an image is the focus.

I like the perch here as it seems the right size for the bird. The exposure for a black and white bird also looks good.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

amazing pose, light, bg, expo, perch and details. Love everything about this image. fantastic work. Hope to make it to your neck of the woods some day.

[Scott Williams]

Wow, I wish my kingfisher shots looked that good. Nice work!