Malachite Kingfisher

[Ken Watkins]

Found this hiding away in bushes on the banks of one of the rivers feeding into Lake Kariba.
Large crop!

Taken from boat not moving too much. I presume that what appears to be oversharpened breast feathers results from a recent dip in the river?

EOS 1D MkIV

500mm F4 IS hand-held

F5.6, ISO 800, 1/400

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Sharpness and composition look good. I would make it darker, particularly the highlights.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, those feathers are surely wet from a previous dive. I like the perspective as we don't often see kingfishers from what a ppears to be a lower than eye-level perch. I suspect you blurred the BG though? I see an odd halo, or ghosting type artefact, around most of the KF and its perch - likely form masking or other post processing method.

[Ken Watkins]

Daniel,

Looking at it again I did not do a very good job wth the blurring, in particular on the perch, which was below me. I'll have another go, thanks a lot

Axel,

Thanks for the comments on the whites, I missed that as well.

I would like to plead the excuse that this is the first reasonable image of a Malachite that I have ever taken, but that is not really a good enough excuse.

[Stu Bowie]

Ken, these guys are so small, so I would take any shot of these guys. Colours look natural, as most tend to oversaturate the colours. Super pose too.

[Fabs Forns]

Agree with Axel on the whirs. Other than blurring the BG, you could also drank a bot, especially the light branches, since they distract form the main subject. TFS, Ken.

[Danny J Brown]

Hi Ken - Thanks for sharing a nice image of one of my favorite birds anywhere.

DB

[Hendri Venter]

I like the pose and detail. Pity the busy BG though but not much you could do about that.

[Ken Watkins]

I have tried again being a lot more careful and taking into account all of the suggestions you have kindly provided, it certainly looks a lot better to me, but I have to admit failure in darkening the white feathers.