Prepared to swallow

[Stu Bowie]

Another Pied Kingfisher from a few weekends ago, the moment he was about to swallow his breakfast. Unfortunately the weather was very overcast. Taken at my favourite location in the Pilanesberg nature reserve. Im off there tomorrow for another shoot.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/1250
F/5.6
ISO 800

Manual exposure
Hand Held

[Steve Canuel]

Another beauty of this species Stuart. The gray color of the BG is a nice compliment to the bird and I don't think the overcast conditions hurt this shot at all. Good luck with tomorrow's shoot.

[Steve Bein]

Overcast or not, this is awesome. Perhaps you could select the sky and intensify it to bring some blue cast. What a wonderful timing of the shutter and throw of the fish.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Brilliant timing here . Nice details and exposure on the bird .

[Steve Kaluski]

A cracker of a shot Stuart, the overcast conditions have really worked in your favour and as Steve said, the BG really compliments things well. Love the detail and perfect timing. I just wonder if there is any detail you could extract in the black band that runs from the eye around the head, just a thought, but would love to have something like this in the vaults. :bg3:

Good luck with tomorrow Stuart.

TFS
Steve

[Mike Fuhr]

Very neat capture. Just wondering bout the fish -- looks old and dried out or is that just the shadows?

[Mark Itol]

Excellent timing on this one.

[Stu Bowie]

Just wondering bout the fish -- looks old and dried out or is that just the shadows?

Thanks Mike. This is totally in the wild and not baited at all. The fish was fresh out the water, caught by the kingfisher, bashed against the perch for softening, and you are seeing it going down the hatch.:w3

Thanks everyone else for the kind words.

[Dave Leroy]

As mentioned colours are very complimentary and I really like the nice angle on the Kingfisher.

Knarly old perch adds a lot as well.

Well done.

Dave

[Bill Dix]

Wonderful shot, Stuart. Great timing. I'm guessing that the overcast actually helped you here. Hope to see more from here.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Lovely moment...I always enjoy watching these guys with there catch....Overcast conditions always dissapoint at Mankwe, but you still produced a nice image...Weather is looking good up here. Hope it holds for the morrow(It should:S3:) I will try and pop in in the morning for coffee stop...it will be good to catch up!

[Steve Maxson]

Great action captured Stuart! I like the even, overcast light and the gray background works well with this black & white bird. Well done.

[Mike Fuhr]

Thanks Mike. This is totally in the wild and not baited at all. The fish was fresh out the water, caught by the kingfisher, bashed against the perch for softening, and you are seeing it going down the hatch.:w3

Thanks everyone else for the kind words.

Thanks Stuart -- he really did a number on that poor fish! I didn't think they would take a dead fish as bait -- I was just curious. Looks like something I looked at in ichthyology lab.:S3:

[Mike Fuhr]

And I just noticed all the scales on the perch!

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image Stuart! I like the BG the overcast sky produced. Sharp action image.

[Jamie Douglas]

WOW this is awesome.

[EzhilSuresh]

Excellent image. I like the timing and the background.

[Gary Esman]

Sweet image Stuart! :5

[Arthur Morris]

It sure looks as if the bird beat the heck out of the fish.... Love the moment. Lightening up the dark patch below and behind the eye just a bit might be a good plan. (That said I am posting from the back seat of a car with a coat over the window on a sunny afternoon on the Long Island Expressway on line via a hotspot from my cell phone with the laptop powered by an inverter!) How amazing are these times?

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Stuart:

What an amazing moment you captured here. Love the overcast sky as a BG. It really makes your bird pop. I agree with AM on lighting up the face around the beak and eye just a tad.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much for the kind words. Always appreciated.

[Haim Ziv]

Absolutely wonderful shot!:cheers:

[Arthur Morris]

Haim, Gary, and Jamie, If you like an image, please let us know why. We do not want to see BPN become just another "Great Shot" forum. We need your help.