Feeding time!

[Neal Cooper]

I shot this image from a hide near Cape Town. The adult Malachite Kingfisher was feeding the juvenile, probably one of its last free meals. I liked the interaction between the birds.

1/1600
F/8.0
ISO 1600

Canon 1D MKIV
Canon 500mm plus 1.4 ext.

[pat lillich]

beautiful photo Neal - 2 perfect head angles, gorgeous light and wonderful detail and interaction.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice interaction! great to get both sharp

[BenBotha]

Sharp, good light, nice interaction. Well done.

Ben

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well caught, a lovely shot with fine detail.

[Satish Ranadive]

Great action captured.Beautiful composition with nice lights and bg. Loved the colors and details.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I never tire of seeing Malachite Kingfisher images. Nice moment here, Neal, and good to have you onboard at BPN.
I thought I'd try a few tweaks - let me know what you think?

Ran a multiplied highlights luminosity mask to tone down some overall bright tones
Then burned some more midtones on the BG
Burned the whites on their necks slightly
Lastly added some local contrast enhancement by running USM @ 20%, 10px on the birds.
:bg3:

[Neal Cooper]

Thanks for the post Morkel. Your skills are much further advanced than mine :-). I can see the difference it makes, thank you.