Pied Kingfisher

[Stephen Earle]

7D
ISO 500
F 4
1/2000
400 2.8 + 1.4 converter

Taken at the Mankwe hide in the Pilanesburg Nature Reserve, South Africa

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image Stephen , lovely take off pose. Sharpness , compo and BG look so good here
TFS

[Scott Frye]

Nice background and I like including the perch in this flight shot. I'm thinking that a bigger f-stop (f8 or f10) would have increassed DOF enough to bring the far wing in focus

[Mital Patel]

wonderful freezed down on this one. stephen. liked that bg and a gravitational force seen here nicely.

[Randy Stout]

Stephen:

Like the action and the story implied here with the diving pose and perch.

The entire bird looks just a bit soft to me, so perhaps a bit more sharpening.

I also might consider a sliver more room below and to the left, more room to dive into:)

I might have considered trading a bit higher ISO for more DOF flexibility with a smaller aperture.

Cheers

Randy

[Joe Senzatimore]

Leaving the perch in was a great choice in the comp. of this image. Sweet bg and great action captured. Does seem a bit soft here as well.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Stephen, most folk dont realise how fast these characters take off, so well done for getting him in the frame. Comp wise, I would have less perch, and more room for him to fly into. Another killer Mankwe BG.

[arash_hazeghi]

Super pose, nice perch and BG, you did well with he techs balancing ISO with SS to freez the bird, agree that the bird is a bit soft, I would sharpen more if there is detail in RAW. TFS