Belted Kingfisher

[gail bisson]

1DX / 600mm and 1.4X
SS 1/800 / F 8.0/ISO 800. 65 % FF
Had a once in a lifetime close encounter with this extremely skittish bird.
I was driving to the cottage and saw him perched on a branch of a submerged log in the river.
I stopped the car and he flew away immediately but after 10 minutes returned to the same perch so I waited till he flew off again then donned waders, bag blind, tripod etc and went into the river and waited ( and prayed for him to come back!!).
He returned after 45 minutes and posed, preened and called on the perch for 30 minutes. It was wonderful.
The light was tricky because of variable cloudiness but the clouds helped me because the white collar is so easy to blow out.
I exposed for the whites, then brought up the rest of the bird in DPP and CS5.
Comments and critiques always learned from and appreciated with thanks,
Gail
I centered the bird for 2 reasons:
1. there is an ugly branch on RHS of frame ( which I can clone out if you feel I should put the bird on left of frame)
2. the perky tail is as important as the head so I wanted to make it prominent.

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

Nice reward for your efforts! The kingfishers here are also remarkably skittish, and even though I can see them fly back in forth when I am out in the boat, I have never been able to get close enough. May have to put a bag blind over my boat!

The angle of the bird, and perch angle work great. I would be inclined to move it a fraction to the left, and would try it first with just a small crop on left, and a slight balancing crop from the top to keep the proportions constant.

Excellent dof. Love the crown.

The whites on parts of the collar aren't showing much detail on my work monitor, but it tends to read a bit hot on the whites, so will recheck at home.

By the way, Cape Breton was wonderful, even though the weather wasn't.

Cheers

Randy

[Satish Ranadive]

Gail:
Marvelous image. Extremely beautiful colors and superb smooth green background and nice perch.
Love the pose with very nice HA, as you said with perky tail,beautiful eye with lovely white beauty spot .Rest in short "every thing is absolutely superb".

Regards,
Satish.

[Girish Prahalad]

excellent details, exp & perch. BG tone is superb but i do see some noise / posterization.

[gail bisson]

excellent details, exp & perch. BG tone is superb but i do see some noise / posterization.

I do see that posterization Girish. It is not there on my JPEG or TIFF on my computer but appears when I upload it to BPN. Does anyone have any ideas why that would happen?
Gail

[Lyle Gruby]

Ah, my favorite bird and worst enemy. Great DOF, excellent IQ. I'd consider cloning out the branch on the right that's poking him the in the chest and the twig shooting out the back of the limb to the right of his foot.

[Doug Brown]

Really nice Gail! Your efforts paid off with a great portrait of a seriously skittish bird. Perfect pose, nice perch, and great BG. I'd go for a slight crop off the left, and I'd tone the whites down a bit.

[Ian Cassell]

Super, Gail. This is one of my nemesis birds. I have lots of images of them, but no good ones. Head position, perch, and BG all come together here to make a wonderful image. The whites on the neck look a little hot to me, but I'm on a lousy monitor at work so take that with a grain of salt.

[Raybel Robles]

Superb shot!... This is definitely one of the hardest bird to photograph for me. I have never been able to get close enough to even take a shot. I can't wait for them to migrate back here in couple of months so I can try my luck again!

[gail bisson]

Thanks all for the comments. I have incorporated all of them in the repost but for my own files I will not clone out the branch that was sticking into the chest!( I am trying to minimize cloning in my pictures!) I worked on the whites and did another round of noise reduction on the JPEG.

[Ian Cassell]

Good job on the whites, Gail (again judging on a poor monitor). I actually prefer the OP in terms of the perch. I would be tempted to take a little bit off the bottom as well which would effectively move the little guy into the lower left a bit.

[Richard Stern]

Hi Gail,

Great story, and superb image of the bird - I agree with all the comments about this species' skittishness. I prefer the placement of the bird in the re-post, but like the perch better in the original.

Richard

[dankearl]

Well, you have certainly brought out the jealousy in most of us over getting this shot of an absolutely frustrating subject.
I actually have a lot of respect for Kingfishers, I have no idea why they are so paranoid!
Nice IQ, pose , perch and BG.
You are the hardest working photographer I know.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great work on going for the prize! I love when the extra effort pays off. This is great and closer that I have ever gotten either. Love the detail and great bg. I don't mind the branch and am with you on keeping it as close to original as possible. Perhaps just separating the bird from the branch a little rather than removing it completely would work as well.

[Loi Nguyen]

Gail, I love the RP. great bird, great detail, sharpness. The whites certainly are better on the RP, but I would still wish to see a little more, but overall, this is a super image. Loi

[BobbyPerkins]

Your stop certainly turned out well worth all the effort. The head angle and cocked tail made for a perfect pose here with a nice clean background.

Oh have to ask, is your "bag blind" you took into the water with you a Kwik Camo blind? I been considering a bag blind and think it could be very effective and convenient for bird photography. Any words to share be appreciated.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose and details, sweet BH too. sharp. I like the repost. The only thing I wished was for the KF to be at eye level but I take this KF shot any day.

excellent

[gail bisson]

Your stop certainly turned out well worth all the effort. The head angle and cocked tail made for a perfect pose here with a nice clean background.

Oh have to ask, is your "bag blind" you took into the water with you a Kwik Camo blind? I been considering a bag blind and think it could be very effective and convenient for bird photography. Any words to share be appreciated.

Hi Bobby,
Yes, I use a Kwik Camo blind. I really like it and use it a lot.
Gail

[edwardselfe]

Beautiful image and nicely processed. I like that you have balanced the white collar and not lost any detail. However, I would try to lift the shadows a little. Looks a little gloomy to me. I'd also try to brighten the lovely catch-light in his eye as that would really make it come to life. Excellent image.
Ed

[Bill Dix]

A nemesis bird for me as well. Seems to be unanimous. Your fieldcraft and patience paid off big time. Love the way the bird stands out against the lovely green bg; and a great pose. And that perky tail. I like the repost and could see just a bit more off the bottom.

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent shot!!!!!
Wonderful background and perch.
Love the raised crown, excellent details, and great pose.
Your hard work paid off very well.
Well done.

[vishaljadhav]

i like the Repost, the BG looks nicer, the composition looks good and the details are fantastic