Eager to Learn Spotlight Image for week ending July 20th, 2012: Jeannean Ryman - Green Kingfisher

[Daniel Cadieux]

Congratulations Jeannean!!!

Hello all. First image posting and admit, I'm a bit nervous, but here goes...I was pleasantly surprised when this Green Kingfisher flew onto this perch not too far in front of me early yesterday morning. Unfortunately, a Green Heron chased if off, so I was only able to shoot three frames before it flew (all look pretty much the same except the first was out of focus a bit). I would appreciate comments, critiques, and suggestions as I want to get better at this. My post processing skills aren't advanced, but am eager to learn that area as well. The image was cropped on the left and a bit from the bottom. I also did a content aware fill of an out of focus branch next to the existing branch. Most adjustments were made in Lightroom 3.6 and finished/resized in CS 5.

Nikon D7000/500mm f/4-P (manual glass retaining metering)
ISO 400, Aperture priority, matrix metering
f/5.6, 1/400
manual focus on tripod

[Jeannean Ryman]

Sorry for such a late reply, but I had no idea until today when I stumbled upon this forum. I'm very flattered. Thank you.