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Lifetime Member
Project kingfisher - day 1
The plan I had in mind was to spend a few months photographing the kingfishers by my local river. All was good around the 'courting' period but then my local pair disappeared. their nest is quite open and no sightings for a month despite walking my dogs in the era every day, then I saw this male back in the are last week. After a day spent viewing with no camera (no prizes for guessing how many close up's I missed that day) I discovered there is a female knocking around as well, but using the perches by the old nest sights for fish from. The male has been investigating the old nests but has eaten all the fish himself which makes me think he does not currently have any young to feed.
Anyway, I decided to start off by getting the 'standard' shots before going for something a bit more original, so here's one a few seconds before an unfortunate minnow met his maker.
Canon 5d3
500mm f4is
ISO 1250
1/400th f4
One bright leaf evicted, about 75% of the full frame
Mike
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Hey Mike was just going to post a Kingfisher, will look for something else. This one is very smart do like your perch and Bg ,bird is neat and sharp, nice work.
Keith.
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It is a beautiful bird, used to bless the day when I saw one as a kid on the river while canoeing. Track sharp, nice IQ, nice BG. and interesting perch. Nice one, Mike; I am glad you set out to this mission and I am looking forward to see more.
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Well composed and captured. I like seeing his back and a nice profile of his head. Excellent feather details. I really look forward to more images from you.
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This is beautiful. Superb pose, great perch, wonderful colors and details. I don't know how you're going to beat this one, but I'm looking forward to more.
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Super Moderator
Wow, this looks great! Excellent pose, perch, BG. Details look perfect too...I'd only look into darkening the middle of the pupil, and toning down the brighter highlights along the back and tail. Definitely looking forward to more from this series!!
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Lifetime Member
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BPN Member
Hi Mike, thanks for sharing this beautiful image. The bird looks real good on the lovely perch, great HA and pose, all finished off with that perfect BG. I think Davids repost, takes it up another notch.
Will
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Forum Participant
Great capture Mike,love everything about it,nice perch pose BG light,well done.
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Lifetime Member
Thanks for all the comments everyone, much appreciated. Unfortunately I may need to look to another site as the bird I posted is a juvenile, and I've not seen him now for 3 days despite hours in the hide. I'm guessing he may have been driven out of the area by his parents, who I've not located yet.
Originally Posted by
David Salem
Holy cow!! This is awesome!! The pose, the perch, the details, the colors and that killer BG. Wow!! I do agree with Daniel on the brightness though. Hope you don't mind but I liked this so much that I brought it into PS and played with it. I adjusted the levels and added some blacks to it along with a sight saturation boost. Hope you like the changes. One of your best frames!!.
David,
Thanks for your repost, it is nicer. I've had a few comments recently about brightness, so I'll re-calibrate later. Thanks for taking the time to do the RP
Mike
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very pretty!
Top quality!!!
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Mike, this is a lovely image of a beautiful bird. Amazing that you got everything in focus at F4. Love the RP by David. Loi
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Lovely shot Mike. I was going to make a coment about needing a little more "oomph" - buts the repost has sorted it.
Good stuff
John
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Lifetime Member
Really well done Mike. I like the beautiful, smooth, BG and the colours. For me a version between David's and yours would work.
Nice work!