Striped Kingfisher

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi All,
I just returned from a fantastic trip to Botswana. Covered Chobe national park and Okavango Delta. It was great meeting Stu and his lovely wife Colleen at Jo'burg. Here is a Striped KF taken at the Delta taken with the 5D III and 500 II + 1.4 X TC III.
1/1250
f/8
ISO 800
Hand held

[dennis greenwood]

Hi Sanjeev, I like the image very much,whites look to be well controlled

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Sanjeev, great fishing pose, as he is certainly fixated on something below. The head is nice and sharp, and I do like the smooth BG. Interesting to see the two horizontal branches, and a vertical comp was the only way to go.

It was great catching up with you, together with your Aunt and Uncle. Great evening over dinner, and next round is on me when we catch up again. Hope you had a succesfull trip and look forward to all your images.

[gail bisson]

Very nice Sanjeev.
This is a new species to me so a treat to view.
I am not sure about the horizontal branch. Part of me likes it and another part doesn't. I would love to see a version with the branch cloned.
Would also love to see a picture of the back of the bird if you have one!
Nice BG and I like the hint of blue. Light well handled.
Gail

[adrian dancy]

I very much agree with Gail. The horizontal branches seem to divide the image. An excellent capture however.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, love these SA Kingfishers, hope you saw a Malachite, or Woodland too.

Very nice image, would agree on loosing the LH horizontal branch and if you use a Luminosity mask with a change of blend, the BKG will be richer. I would tweak in the lower half of the tree those colours I've previously mentioned, just neutralises things more. Great detail and whites retained beautifully, the highlight in the eye is perfect.

You have raised the bar with these new images, well done.

TFS
Steve

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image, Sanjeev.
Very nice pose, colours, great details and nice composition.

Regards,
Satish.