The King in Flight

[Mark Needham]

Image:

Pied Kingfisher in Flight in Golden Light.
Little Kwara Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana.
July 2013.

I had a blast photographing this speedy little guy hovering over a waterhole attempting to catch fish, all in late afternoon golden light. I managed quite a few “keepers” from this shoot, but this is the only head-on wing spread that I was able to get, as most of the others are side profile of the bird. Wild, not baited, no compositional elements changed.

Equipment:

Canon 5D Mark III camera.
Canon 500 f4 Mark II lens.
f4.0, 1/2500, ISO 320.
manual mode, evaluative metering.
spot focus.
Jobu Jr. gimbal on Manfrotto superclamp attached to safari vehicle.

Post processing:

Lightroom 5.6: basic global adjustments, crop, etc.
Photoshop CS6 and Nik Viveza: minor targeted adjustments.
Nik Color Efex: white neutralizer, tonal contrast.
Photoshop CS6: selective color enhancement, resized and sharpened using Hougaard Malan’s actions.
edited on a color calibrated NEC P241W monitor.

As always, comments and critique welcomed! Cheers!

[christopher galeski]

good capture,nice detail,like the pose,good exposue,wish the BG was one color,rather than split,just my opinion,but still a nice capture.TFS.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely shot of their hovering behavior. These sure are difficult subjects to photograph, and I think you did it beautifully. Super pose and the image came together nicely with great light. BG works fine for me.

[Mark Needham]

Thanks for your feedback, Marina and Chris!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mark, I bet you were glad to get this shot - its fun shooting these guys, and you managed a great open wingspread. As I get to see and shoot a lot of these Pied's, I thought I would show you my version, realising you were shooting in late afternoon light. I have reduced the contrast, and removed the yellow cast, and then added back some blacks. Hope you dont mind.

[Mark Needham]

Hi Stuart -- Awesome - don't mind at all - I like your version too! I just hate to get rid of the kiss of golden light on the bird that I feel makes it "pop" a bit and also makes it a bit unique from others. Maybe the winning version is somewhere in between?

[Thinus Schoeman]

Hi Mark, we see a fair amount of this bird in South Africa, and it is very difficult to capture the pose you captured here without an all sky background, which is not my favourite. You certainly have captured a very nice pose, very well exposed and very sharp. Not much you could do about the multi-coloured background, but in my opinion it doesn't detract from the image. The only wish in a perfect world would have been for a bit of more eye. Well captured and congratulations!
Regards
Thinus

[Ishmeet Sahni]

Brilliant image Mark, Stuart I agree with you regarding the contrast, but I do like the yellow glow on the wings.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hey Mark - love the pose, colours and exposure here. Stu's repost takes it up a notch.

[Mark Needham]

Hey Mark - love the pose, colours and exposure here. Stu's repost takes it up a notch.

Thanks, Morkel. Just need to find some time for making the final tweaks - work keeps getting in the way

[Mark Needham]

Thanks for the great feedback and tips for improvement, everyone! Here is the revised version (800px on longest side, 72dpi) - what do you think?