Giant Kingfisher

[Stephen Earle]

Mark IV
ISO 500
F 6.3
1/2500
500 F 4

Mankwe hide, Pilanesberg Nature Reserve, South Africa

Flying away from me but then she turned her head.

[Robert Amoruso]

I know that feeling of flying away. Beautiful bird and BG. Nicely placed in frame. Head stills needs to be turned more towards you though IMO.

[Don Hamilton Jr.]

Beautiful bird for sure! Like it ,A bit more HAm and you are golden! Well done!
Don

[Hendri Venter]

Top shot Stephen. I like the slight wing blur and sharp detail were needed.

[Randy Stout]

Stephen:

Good comments above. Nice sense of action, rich colors in bird and background, well exposed esp. considering the harsh light (shadows)

Cheers

Randy

[Stephen Earle]

Thanks everyone for your input. It's always appreciated.

I would like to share some thoughts with you on the HA issue. While I fully agree that in some instances a good HA is a must in order to for a photograph to be as strong as possible, I must say that I feel differently about situations such as this one.

The story that the image tries to convey is one of behavior. It is not intended to show what a kingfisher looks like. She is diving one way while staring at something unknown to the viewer that lies somewhere out of frame. How would that story have been better told by a different HA?

I was hoping that the image would leave one wondering as to what she was looking at instead of leaving one wondering what she looked like.

To me the image works with the HA as shown.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts, which I'm sure will be diverse.:D

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Stephen, loved the exposure and the comp. BG superb as always at this place. Would love to see this bird some day.

[Arthur Morris]

The head angle in this one works fine for me. Folks need to realize that head angle is not something that is measured only in degrees, i.e., this many degrees is good, this many is bad. The entire image as well as the pose need to be considered. The bird is diving slightly away for prey and is concentrating on that task.

Now ask me if I would have preferred that as a matter of circumstance the bird was angling slightly toward you as it began its dive rather than slightly away from you and I would answer yes. But as presented, the head angle is A-OK. And I do like the image. Amazing the amount of blur at 1/2500 sec.

[Stephen Earle]

Well put Arthur. I couldn't agree more.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Stephen, I just call em like I see em :)

[Tony Whitehead]

Nice to see the GK co-operating for you, Stepehn. I really like the light showing the rufous underwing plumage so well. Critical focus seems to be on this area leaving the head and body marginally soft. Typical great Mankwe perch and BG.