African Pygmy Kingfisher

[Chris van Rooyen]

I have been inspired by the beauty of the Oriental Dwarf Kingfishers posted lately on this website. I thought I would show you what the African equivalent looks like. This image was created some years back while I was on holiday in the spectacular Wild Coast of the eastern Cape province.

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Date/Time: 2004:12:04 07:33:20
Shutter speed: 1/100 sec
Aperture: 6.3
Exposure mode: Program
Flash: External E-TTL High speed sync
Flash exposure compensation: -1/3
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Single frame shooting
ISO: 640
Lens: 500mm
Focal length: 700mm

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

We have been seeing some georgeous kingfisher shots lately. Loved the shallow DOF and the open beak. Stating the obvious...the OOF branch in ULC is distracting. Tight vertical crop might work even if the bird is looking to the side IMO.

KD

[Stephen Stephen]

Chris I like the sharp details DOF and the eye contact. There's not much that you can do with that OOF branch. Did you create any images with a slightly lower negative flash exposure?

[subramanya_ck]

Wow, what a colorful bird this is.... very nice shot

[Randy Stout]

Chris:

Spectacular little fellow, but too much other material in the frame for his petite size. I agree with Kaustubh about the framing.

I also used the recovery slider a bit in ACR to tone down the flashed look just a bit, and burned in the perch a bit to reduce its impact.

In a perfect world, a finer perch would be nice.

This is a fine image, I think it is possible to accentuate its strengths. IMHO.

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Striking colours Chris, and good flashwork. Overall nice and sharp, and I like Randy's repost. ( shooting in program mode, those were the early days. LOL. )

[David Fletcher]

Striking shot Chris. As Stu said, "those were the days"... Personally, I prefer the comp in the Op, bar the oof l/h branch, but appreciate the lift the repost has given. Nicely done.

[DanWalters]

I like the first one as well. There is a little more room for the bird. I like the colors of the bird as well.

[Christian Dionne]

I like the 1st picture with the 2nd picture's perch.
IMO the 2nd has changed the color of the bird a little too much...
There has got to be a way to have both, right!

Great little bird!

[Harshad Barve]

Such a stunningly beautiful bird , awesome image , My vote for OP
TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice shot of this petite beauty Chris.
I like what Randy has done comp-wise, but like your OP exposure and colours more...

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks guys, always nice to get a bit of discussion going:-) Randy, yes I like your suggestions, but recently I have started to move towards a wider style i.e. contextualising the subject a bit more. I purposefully went for a wider crop with the branches included to show a bit of habitat. I guess the nice thing about this game is that there are no right and wrong, some will like it, others will prefer a more traditional approach:-)

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

I too prefer the wider framing & inclusion of habitat. Great capture of the little beauty Chris!