Giant Kingfisher

[Chris Kotze]

Canon 40D
Lens 100-400 l
SS 1/2000
ISO 400
f 7.1

I caught him on a return dive with no catch. Your comments and advice would be appreciated

[Randy Stout]

Chris:

An unique prospective, which works for me. Like the folded wings and fanned tail, rich browns.

The image seems a bit bit too contrasty for my tastes, and or oversharpened a bit. You might back off just a fraction on the contrast, to see if you can soften it without it becoming dull.

His bill shadow on the breast is a minor point but doesn't detract for me.

Really eye catching.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I find this very cool, not a pose you get to see often, sharpness and composition look good, too. I would tone down the whites and desaturate the orange channel a bit. I agree with Randy regarding contrast and might lighten the sky a bit.

[Stu Bowie]

Chris, an angle often seen, but not that easy to capture. Interesting streamlined posture, sharp, and central placement works well.

[Chris Kotze]

Thanks for the comments and advice. I've lightened the BG and contras slightly.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I used Viveza to lighten the sky, tone down whites, get more details in the shadows and desaturated the red channel a bit. You can do this even better with the TIFF file.

[Connie Mier]

Very cool shot, and not an easy one too. Congratulations getting this so sharp. Not much to improve upon!

[Julie Brown]

Chris, the techs have been covered by the experts. For me this is an outstanding shot!:cool:
The bird's position, the detail, the colors-all work for me. Nice image.:)

[Bill Dix]

Amazing perspective on this fellow. Love the fanned tail and folded wings. Reposts really help - on my monitor Axel's blue and red adjustments work better for me. In either case, a wonderful shot.

[Callie de Wet]

Chris - Big Salaam, this is excellent. As for the colour of this female as originally posted that is more correct than any of the reposts. This bird is very rufous, not bown or light rufus, and the blacks are black, not gray. However, my hat off to the PP skills shown to lighten this "fisher.

[Harshad Barve]

This is just fantastic image , amazing image made better and better with experts chiming in
TFS

[Vida van der Walt]

Super image Chris. Love the pose and I prefer your 2nd version.:)

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent pose and freeze action, this is one tough shot to get and you did great!!! Agree with desating the sky and reducing contrast a bit, Axel repost is an improvement. Nicely done.

[Chris Kotze]

Thanks for all the comments and advice it' much appreciated