Mankwe Pied Kingfisher

[Tony Whitehead]

One of the images from a fabulous day at Mankwe hide organised by Stuart Bowie during my recent trip to South Africa. Great to meet some of the local photogs including Pilanesberg local and BPN member Gerrie van Vuuren and BPN member Dumay Boulle. By all reports the action was slow but I never felt bored and managed images of Pied, Malachite and Giant Kingfishers! We had high cloud which gave nice diffused light but light levels were relatively low calling for high ISO and making it hard to maintain SS as high as I would have liked for these quick movers some of the time. Some lovely backgrounds from the OOF hills. I look forward to going back some time. HAP may not fully approve but he was fixated and in the process of launching angled towards us so I'm happy with it.
Nikon D700
Nikon 500VRII + 1.4x
ISO 1600 1/3200s f8 matrix -0.33
HH supported on railings of the walkway
Comments and suggestions appreciated as always.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Tony, it was a great pleasure, and Im glad you came away with plenty images. Super comp, and his posture is showing he was about to take off. The HA looks fine to me, and overall, well exposed. I like the hint of clouds in the BG. Good job with the high ISO too.

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice perch, bg and wing positions well done. BTW, ISO 1600 is not really "high" for D700 ;)

[Tony Whitehead]

BTW, ISO 1600 is not really "high" for D700 ;)

Agreed. I was lucky to be using a full frame sensor as the conditions were more challenging for smaller sensors.

[denise ippolito]

Tony, Very nice composition. The BG is lovely. I like the pre-take off pose and the sharp details.

[Randy Stout]

Tony:

Very nice. Yes, the bird is angled away, but the head is angled more our way than the body, and it works for me.
Excellent perch, nice BG, great wing display.

Might consider lightening the catchlight just a bit.

Cheers

Randy

[Colin Knight]

This works for me very well! I would lighten the eye and surrounding area a bit. Thanks for posting!

[Harshad Barve]

excellent image Tony , liked this very much as posted and I dont see any problems with HAP ;)
TFS

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Glad to learn you came away with some good images of my backyard PK's.;) Like the wing position on this one and agree that the head angled towards the camera makes it work. Bird is well exposed for conditions at the time.:)