Meet Buffy

[Lance Peters]

one tough bird to photograph - The Buff Breasted Paradise Kingfisher - migrates from New Guinea to nest in termite mounds in Far North Queensland.
Buffy likes to spend most of his time perched up in the rainforest - not really interested in posing for photographs, most of the time involved trying to get a angle between trees and rainforest vines to get buffy separated from the rainforest - and dark to boot, a tough job.

D3
Nikon 500mm F4 with 1.7 X converter
F9
1/15TH
800 ISO
SB900 with better beamer @ 1/1
Matrix Metering
Tripod

Cropped - Destat reds - the reds were clipped reduced them a bit whilst trying to keep the colours true to life - these guys really are a electric blue/orange - cant miss them as the zip around - Flight shots were just impossible.

Could clean up the eye a tad :)

Comments welcome.

[Ofer Levy]

Lovely shot Lance!!! Maybe applying a bit of cooling filter would help as it looks slightly on the warm side to me. I have seen quite a few easy to approach BBPKF at Kingfisher Park QLD - a great place to photograph them quite easily.

[Harshad Barve]

I was waiting for this Lance :)
Spectacular species and lovely shot , nice perch and great BG considering situations , Agreed on electric colors and flight shots , We too face same problems while shooting Oriental Dwarf Kingfishers

I am very happy to see this and thanks a ton for sharing

[Lance Peters]

Lovely shot Lance!!! Maybe applying a bit of cooling filter would help as it looks slightly on the warm side to me. I have seen quite a few easy to approach BBPKF at Kingfisher Park QLD - a great place to photograph them quite easily.

Hi Ofer - so they tell me - I was a bit early perhaps, also no rain to speak of as yet - they were easily seen but not very approachable, were spending a lot of time high up in the canopy and zipping around looking and digging termite mounds (Didn't attempt any photography at this time - only observed from a distance)

[Juan Aragonés]

Fantastic capture Lance. I cannot comment on colors because I have not seen this beauty in real life (unfortunately for me :p). I like the pose of the bird a lot (perhaps you have found the only KF interested in posing for photography :)). BG is really nice and the details looks great. Very good job

[Lance Peters]

Fantastic capture Lance. I cannot comment on colors because I have not seen this beauty in real life (unfortunately for me :p). I like the pose of the bird a lot (perhaps you have found the only KF interested in posing for photography :)). BG is really nice and the details looks great. Very good job

Hi Juan - Thanks :) - I think their behaviour depends on numerous factors - Rain, Nesting etc etc.
Gorgeous Gorgeous bird and in real life those colours are just electric!!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Beautiful bird, I particularly like the long tail, good look-back pose and BG. I would work on the eye as it looks overflashed.

[David Fletcher]

Amazing bird Lance. Unable to comment on colors as wouldn't know what the real deal is, :D, but this is lovely as presented. Will do for me.

[Arthur Morris]

Stunning bird, pose, BKGR, framing, COMP, and a great head angle. And a killer tail.

Correct me if I am wrong: the feathers seem quite lacking in fine detail. Is anyone else seeing this? (I do not have a good eye for fine detail).

Lance: Is this a cropped image? If yes, how large?

[Mike Veltri]

A lovely gem of a bird, I do agree with Arthur as the perch and the foot look soft to me for F/9.
Did you use noise reduction on the image?

[Lance Peters]

Stunning bird, pose, BKGR, framing, COMP, and a great head angle. And a killer tail.

Correct me if I am wrong: the feathers seem quite lacking in fine detail. Is anyone else seeing this? (I do not have a good eye for fine detail).

Lance: Is this a cropped image? If yes, how large?

HI Artie - crop is about 50% of the original - I thought the same thing about the feathers - the reds were clipped a lot - so desaturated them. There is a lack of very fine detail in the feathers of all the shots I have of this guy - any idea's Artie???

No NR on the bird.

[Lance Peters]

Will revisit the PP on this tonight - branch foot could be operator error --- Maybe.

[Arthur Morris]

HI Artie - crop is about 50% of the original - I thought the same thing about the feathers - the reds were clipped a lot - so desaturated them. There is a lack of very fine detail in the feathers of all the shots I have of this guy - any idea's Artie??? No NR on the bird.

Hey Lance, No clue other than to say that 50% is a pretty healthy crop.... You might try selecting the bird and running a contrast mask: 15/65/0 or thereabouts in Unsharp Mask.

I do not understand the "branch-foot" remark above :)

[Glenn Bartley]

What a gorgeous species. Well done!

[Kiran Poonacha]

a true gem of a bird this, loved the eye contact and colours...

[Rob Drummond]

G'day Lance - nice to see you posting again. You've obviously been on the road. i like the the way you've the kept the light in this shot. So many old shots of this species had almost black backgrounds because of poor flash use.

cheers
Rpb

[Rod Warnock]

Great capture, Lance !! Hope to do a trip to Kingfisher Park sometime during 2010 !!
Best regards
Rod Warnock

[deomurari]

Lovely Birdie....

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

It looks pretty OK for a big crop Lance. Glad you got to see this stunning KF mate. :)