Belted Kingfisher

[David Salem]

We were very fortunate to have this female belted Kingfisher hang out in a localized area of a near by shooting spot last year. She stayed for about a week and a half and hunted dragonfly nymphs from this perch in the mornings.
She would sit in the sun long enough to get hot and she would then raise her crest and open her beak to pant and cool off. Perfect for a nice photo opportunity!!

1DX---840mm---f7.1---ss1/2500th---ISO640---Hand held@ 8:40am---30% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.

[Tim Foltz]

Dave super sharp shot of this "flighty" bird, nice details, BG, HA and exposure.

-Tim

[keith mitchell]

David got to be close to perfect,very sharp and detailed with a nice clean BG.

Keith.

[gail bisson]

A beauty for sure!
Love the BG and comp is perfect. The diagonal line created by the perch leads the eye nicely up to the KF. Comp is perfect for my taste.
Lovely!
Gail
PS Thanks for working on my SEO shot.It looks good.

[Michael Thompson]

Well done getting close to one my nemesis birds! Great color and detail, love that little tongue and the tiny feet!

[Alex Becker]

Nice perch, BG, and details of a skiddish bird! Love the tongue flick and the catchlight. TFS

[Joseph Przybyla]

As others have said... my nemesis bird, very hard to get close to. Lovely image, techs spot on as always. Thank you for sharing, David.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone.

[Arthur Morris]

Sweet on all counts. And sharp. And perfectly composed.

with love, artie

[Mike Poole]

Another beauty Dave, got to love that open mouth pose, and the raised crest and view of the tongue only add to the shot.

Mike

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi David, lovely timing with the beak open and killer backdrop, having the crest is the icing.

Personally I just find the Blacks/Shadow areas looking a bit choked/heavy, clogging some of the finer detail, or it might be Contrast/Clarity?

TFS
Steve

[David Salem]

Thanks again everybody for the comments, I'm glad you like it.

Steve,
I will check it when I get back to my office tonight but I thought it looked pretty good. I do use a touch of clarity (5-10 points) and adjust the blacks with the levels slider in PS.
Maybe I'll try a slight reprocess and see what you think.
Thanks as always for your input and help

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi David, I think with the light and I'm guessing you may have 'pinched' the Histogram in Levels it pushed things a little more. Personally I tend to address Blacks and Contrast well before anything else as Contrast I find is the killer with Con images compared to Nilkon, 5-10 Clarity is not much, but it's dependent on the image I find and much prefer Curves as the 'Workhorse' tool, Levels is fine, but it's knowing what it does compared to other adjustment tools. Also if you address any key Colours i.e. Blue, and depending on the choice of mode, this too may have a big part to play.

Just had a tinker, not ideal, but...

Cheers
Steve

[David Salem]

Hey Steve sorry I've been so busy I haven't had time to try to do a repost but thanks for showing me what your thoughts were. Looks good and I see more detail in some of the feathers but it's looks a little thin on my end.
The bird actually has darker color closer to my original post but I might be able to bring out a hair more detail in the feathers. Maybe an additional 20% of what you did added to mine would look probably be about perfect.
Thanks as always for your help and thoughtful suggestions

[David Salem]

I also play with curves but I was kind of weaned on levels and I find it fairly quick and easy to get my darks and lights dialed in.
I do understand what you mean though.
Thanks again

[Glenn Conlan]

We got lucky with this cooperative Kingfisher, probably won't happen again. Great detail, I like Steve's repost but i agree the color of the gray-blue feathers should be darker.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dave, you certainly nailed the pose - side profile, open beak, and a visible tongue to round it off. Did I mention the raised crest. Thats a killer smooth BG. With regards to the colours, Im not quite familiar with these KF's, and although I can see the feather detail well enough in your OP, maybe somewhere in between your OP and Steve's post.