Pied Kingfisher

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

This was at Pilanesberg National Park, SA at the Makwe hide in the morning.
f/7.1
1/3200
ISO 800
700mm
5D III

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful shot, Sanjeev.
Nice pose with slightly raised wings. Sharp where it needed. Wish OOF branch was not there and light direction would have been better.

Regards,
Satish.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

A very nice KF specie!
Good light on the side and shapness. TFS

[Jim Neiger]

Cool bird, interesting pose, and sharp focus in the right place. Moving a bit to the right, if possible, would have allowed you to get rid of the oof branch in bg and may have given you a better light angle as well.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm OK with the light angle but agree moving right, if possible, would have been the best strategy...but I suspect the hide you are in is set permanently? Good details on the KF.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks everyone. It was difficult to move as the hide is a permanent structure, secondly there were 3 more photographers on the bench and there was no place to move around & the KF was the star hogging the lime light !

[Diane Miller]

So often the case! What a gorgeous bird with wonderful light and sharpness, and a well-matched perch. I wonder if it is possible to desaturate the yellows in that OOF branch, to make it less prominent. Since the most OOF edges are against sky, it might not be hard to make a selection. When I first glanced at the image I saw that branch as being in front of the bird.

I had to give it a very quick try -- I actually used the Lasso tool, which I haven't used in about 10 years! Where the selection was hard against the sky it didn't matter -- I just drew along the hard edge of the perch and then took it all the way to both edges to make a triangle. Also cloned out the other OOF part. Hope you don't mind my playing. I know many people don't want to change an image.

[Ian McHenry]

Hi Sanjeev. Beautifully composed image.
Like Diane's edit with more snap and cleaner details.
Cheers: Ian Mc

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks everyone. Dianne, great idea to desaturate the OOF branch. I like it. The RP does bring back more emphasis on the PKF.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks again everyone