Belted Kingfisher with Breakfast

[Raymond Barlow]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y281/rammy111111/DSC_5911w.jpg

Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada

Nikon D300 (http://www.pbase.com/cameras/nikon/d300) ,Nikkor 200-400mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR (http://www.pbase.com/cameras/nikon/200-400_4g_afs_vr) ,1.4 TC
1/1000s f/5.6 at 550.0mm iso200

Tripod, natural light, 70% of ff

About 20 hours in the hide since last weekend, and finally the shot I was after came about.. just too bad the fish is looking the wrong direction, and even worse, some people walking by my hide flushed the bird before I had a chance to get more shots... o well!

[Robert O'Toole]

Good job on the exposure, the water droplets are great. the fish is nice and sharp, too bad he wasnt face first, but it still is a great image. I like the ROT comp and placement.

A little USM on the birds face and eye would be good.

Robert

[Leroy Laverman]

Very nice action. Looks like your patience paid off. This looks a little dark on my screen.

[Arthur Morris]

Congrats Raymond. Love the off-centered COMP and the fish but lots of problems after that: the biggest one is that the bird's head is facing slightly away from you. It needed to turn its head at least to parallel. The poor head angle is the reason that the front of the face looks so dark. Agree with Leroy that aside from the white neck the whole image is too dark. If you work that blind again, set up lower if possible so that the bird is totally against the reddish stuff. As is, the line of demarcation between the red on the brown intersects the bird. Hope that I did not rain too much on your parade but failing to mention the problems would not help you to improve. Lastly, investing in the 1.7 TC might be a great plan.

[Linda Robbins]

Hi Raymond,

Well, these birds are my nemesis bird. They hate me. But then, I probably don't deserve an image since I haven't spend 20 hours in a blind trying!
Others have commented on the image, but I have to tell you that your story made me laugh - but in sympathy.....we've all experienced working hard to try for a certain image, only to have our opportunity ruined by people coming along at exactly te wrong moment...

[Raymond Barlow]

thanks for the advice everyone... Artie., I do have a 1.7, and I agree I should have used it, but I haven't had a lot of good luck with IQ with that combination... If I had more time to mess around, I would have tried it, but about 20 seconds with that bird, and I heard the people coming.

I do see your piont about the image being a little dark, I am far from a good editor, and really appreciate the critque. Also, this is a tough place to get a good bg, houses, and boat, galvanized poles and a road... But I will work on it!!

thanks again., take good care.