Unhappy fish !

[John Robinson]

Kingfisher
Don,t fish always look un happy !!
Going back a bit
Spent several weeks
on snipe and then the this kingfisher turned up on the left of the hide about 15 foot away. There was no hole at that side of the hide, and all I had was a stanly knife blade. The bird couldn’t kill the stickleback as the bulrush was too soft so it was there for a while whacking the you know what out of it.. I managed to get a hole in the canvas without spooking the bird. And got quite a few shots. Cheap old stuff in those days too. One of my great memories though. Nikon D70 (crikey) Whites nearly blown but hey!!
No introduced perches or anything at all. Just as it happened. 800 ISO Its nice to see these on mossy perches etc but that rarley happens as moss only grows in dark places and soon wares off if the bird uses it it often enough. In all my years of bird photograhy I have yet to see a kingfisher on a "pretty" perch !! I reckon 99% of kingy pics are set up. Google Kingfisher to see what I mean.
60^th second @ f9
Sigma 50-500 mm on about 100mm.
Hand held but resting on hide canvas.
RE processed. PSPro.
Neat Image/CZM/image guru
Happy days !!
Thanks for comments on last pic posted.
Cheers
John R

[Iain Barker]

Great picture John,

Nice detail on the bird. I like the natural perch and the fish really adds to the image. I would like a little more at the top but this is one of the nicest Kingfisher pictures I've seen.
Not sure I would have considered cutting an extra hole in the hide.

TFS
Iain

[Martin Dunn]

super shot John.
Love the colours and the detail.
The pose with the fish held in beak is great. Top shot.

[Bret Goddard]

Heh Heh, fast thinking there John, well worth a slice. The look in the fish eye is great, bad day for him, you did quite well all in all.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent catch, John. The best part is that you can see the eye of the fish. Nice pose, background, perch and nice overall. I feel that you could have a tiny bit more canvas on the top.

[Satish Ranadive]

Spectacular image. Great catch, beautiful pose, colors, details,perch and of course lovely composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[John Robinson]

Thanks all I,ll have a play around withthe top bit.
Cheers
John

[Robert Kimbrell]

A nice clean shot John, Nice colors. I like the perch here, and a nice angle on the head.

[Holger Leyrer]

Wonderful image with super perch. On the most Kingfisher-images the bird is sitting on a branch or a piece of a tree.
The colors and details looks great and the fish in the beak is stunning

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful bird nicely shown. Lovely colors, perch and background, the fish is icing on the cake.

[John Robinson]

Thanks
Here's a repost with a bit more on the top and adjusted the backdrop a little. Cheers
John

[Diane Miller]

This is your usual superb job, John! You do colors and tonalities SO well.

I would have CHEWED a hole if necessary to get a shot like this.