Giant Kingfisher

[Morkel Erasmus]

I was fortunate to come close to this beautiful bird in the Mankwe hide, Pilanesberg, South Africa. On this occasion a good take-off/BIF shot was not forthcoming...but a ruffle of the feathers was...

(...and no, I'm not going to clone out the piece of firewood ;))

Techs:
Canon 7D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 300mm
f7.1 @ 1/1000 SS @ ISO-800

[Randy Stout]

Morkel:

Lovely colors, well exposed.
Wish I could see a bit more of his tail, and that the wing was a bit sharper. Is this DOF or motion blur because of the shake?

And yes, some would recommend cloningout the piece sticking up from trunk on right.:D

Cheers

Randy

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely image that could only be Mankwe, Morkel. A little more room below so that your piece of firewood can be seen as part of the perch may be an option - that would raise the option of extending the blue over the LRC. Love the texture of the ruffled feathers.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Morkel,

I like this one. A beautiful bird too.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm with Tony in adding a bit more canvas below, if you have it, to connect the small piece to its parent branch. Otherwise it needs to be removed out IMO:). I would also remove the beige triangle in LRC. Neat KF, and at 300mm I see you were indeed quite close...something that is almost impossible without a hide and patience with our KFs.

[Arthur Morris]

The blind needs a more better perch :) In addition to the above, this one could go a bit lighter with the dark tones. Half-raised wings not my fave but I love the perfect head angle.

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Morkel

Love the animated pose and the sharpness and position of the head. I would also lighten the darker tones.

Will have to go to Mankwe some time.

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

You would think that a Giant Kingfisher should be a relatively easy bird to capture, but I have found exactly the opposite.

Ok the perch is not the best, but the bird is very nice.

Having looked up where Mankwe is, could you let me know where you stay, is there camping?

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the comments guys - I do actually have little more space at the bottom so I'll look at adding that back.

Ken - I was there for the day but you can camp or stay in chalets in the Pilanesberg rest camps of Manyane and Bakgatla, you can also opt to stay in Sun City if you prefer a luxurious option :)

[Art Kornienko]

Nice work on getting the shot Morkel, agree perch could be better and ditto for removal of wood in LRC.

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Like the pose & two tone BG. I would have gone for a smaller crop with the whole perch in the frame & enough space for the tail allthough it cannot be seen. More space in front will also not hurt the composition.