Belted Kingfisher

[Alan Murphy]

Belted Kingfisher

Workshop: South Texas

D3, 600, ISO 1250, f8, 1/3200, -0.3EV.

Just finished wrapping up a 4 day workshop where all participants went away with tons of images of this Lady.
I tried for a few myself this morning and got a few keepers.

[Ilija Dukovski]

I don't think I've ever seen anything similar with this bird.
The wingspan is excellent. I only wish the fish head was visible :)
Great one!

[Jeff Parker]

Awesome as usual. I would prefer the wings back, but that's nitpicking.

[thijs broekkamp]

Beautifull picture! The drips on the bird, bg, sharpness, compo everything is ok!

[arash_hazeghi]

This is awesome Alan, love the wing position, details and the fish!!! congrats

[Grace Scalzo]

Lovely, Alan. There's a nice gracefullness to the bird.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Alan, the background is really nice in this one. So are the pose, details, sharpness and exposure.

[Richard Stern]

Agree, it's a fabulous image - I can never get close enough to these birds. My only nit would be to remove the tringular white blob in front of the eye.

Richard

[Michael Cohen]

The Kingfisher, my nemisis. Great shot, crisp and nice wing position. Nice going.

Mike

[Jim Fenton]

Love the subject pose and background.

Somehow, the perch on this looks a bit unnatural for e kingfisher (at least where I typically shoot them) and on my monitor, the sharpness needs to be kicked up a hair.

I might tone down the spectral highlights on the shiners tail as it catches my eye and distracts.

[Markus Jais]

Awesome, as always. Great wing pose, beautiful BG, fish in the bill. Can't be any better than this!

Markus

[Jim Buescher]

My only nit would be to remove the tringular white blob in front of the eye.

Richard

The "white blob" is part of the belted kingfishers plumage, it's found on both male and females, better to leave it on.:D

I also like the wing position, just because of its uniqueness. Overall, a great shot of a skittish subject.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the detail visible in the wing and sharpness you captured in this image!

[Deborah Hanson]

Amazed by the perch - the only ones that seem available to me are the iron rail on the spillway or the metal road guard next to the spillway.:D
Wing detail is really nice. The eye contact is strange to me as it doesn't seem to be looking where it's going.
Good colors in the head and body. For me, it's always been difficult to get the right exposure to have the colors come through true.

Deb

[Rod Warnock]

Wing position captures the feathering to perfection, Alan !! The background gradation very supportive of the subject. Like this image a lot.
Best regards
Rod Warnock

[Kiran Poonacha]

Loved the wing position, nice light and details. the eye contact and fish puts this over the top.

Bhai, was just wondering how it would look without the perch??

[Danny Laredo]

Fantastic landing you have captured here Alan.
The fish is an added bonus.
Excellent light as well.

do you have one of him landing with the wings pulled back so we can see the spread out legs ?