Malachite Kingfisher

[Marc Mol]

Malachite Kingfisher
Chobe River- Botswana Sept 09. Monopod from small boat.
This is the closest I've ever been able to get to these skittish birds, if your reasonably quiet, I found that we
could approach within a few metres
D3 500VR 1/2000s ISO3200@f/5.6 (in the hope he would take off)

C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

[Harshad Barve]

one fabulous bird this is , lovely pose and BG
have you used flash here ?
TFS

[Danny J Brown]

It looks like a cross between our belted kingfisher and an eastern bluebird. I love it.

[Chris Baker]

Nice one Marc, what a bird, nice detail

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Marc, I like the pose, and you have exposed the colours very well. Overall sharp, and stands out nicely against the BG. I would maybe crop off a little from the bottom, so as to hide the end of the perch which ends to nothing. Great sighting, and well captured.

[Arthur Morris]

Loverly bird, COMP, and SH. The one green stalk behind the head is a distraction. Here's the strangest thing: in BPN, the blues look totally magenta/purple. I saved the image and opened it in Breezebrowser and the blues looked blue. Then I opened it in Photoshop and they looked purple/magenta....

[Paul Randall]

Great stuff Marc, agree with Arthur about the OOF green branch intersecting with the back of the head. Anywhere else and it would not have been a problem but seeing that the head is the focal point...
Colours are fantastic and the high iso has not done any damage to the image either. Well done on 500 posts too:)

[Marc Mol]

Appreciate the comments guys.

Great stuff Marc, agree with Arthur about the OOF green branch intersecting with the back of the head. Anywhere else and it would not have been a problem but seeing that the head is the focal point...
Colours are fantastic and the high iso has not done any damage to the image either. Well done on 500 posts too:)

Repost here Paul

[Harshad Barve]

repost looks better
TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Very well done. The repost is a vast improvement. How did you make and protect the selection?

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Harshad & Artie.

Very well done. The repost is a vast improvement. How did you make and protect the selection?

On the intersecting OOF green area I used the patch tool, then new layer and Gaussian of 3.0 to clean that BG area, then cropped LR of perch.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Harshad & Artie. On the intersecting OOF green area I used the patch tool, then new layer and Gaussian of 3.0 to clean that BG area, then cropped LR of perch.

Hi Marc, I am more confused now :) Are you saying the you eliminated the branch where it intersected the head with the Patch Tool??? If yes, how did you avoid smudging???