This is an image from the good olde days. It was taken with much effort, setting up a blind near a known perch and carefully observing the birds behavior over the course of many days. The orange background is the result OOF reeds at first light, and shallow DOF. Subject was lit with manual balanced flash. Shutter-speed was adjusted as the background light increased to maintain proper balance between flash and ambient.
Much credit to my friend Steve Sisti for setting up the blind, and more.
I always enjoy seeing older images that show what could be done with persistence and skill. Having shot a lot with a D1X, I appreciate its limitations and what you have accomplished.
Sharp, colorful background, well exposed, skillful flash use.
Appears to be angled away a bit, still very effective.
Hi Chas,
Really amazing! Looks like you did some sort of super human masking job and replaced the background. At first glance I thought that thats what you had done. Great detail on the bird as always.
When you said manual flash, Did you mean just one on camera with a bracket?
Simply awesome shot, Charles. Fantastic detail and the BG has the feel of sunlight through stained-glass - kind of a trans-illuminated look. I wonder if the bird can be brighted a bit, though? It seems a bit dark on my monitor (MacBook Pro), especially the head.
Wow now that is a great photo and made the good old fashion way.. not all jack-up in photoshop. I really like the color of the background in contrast with the king. great use of fill flash it looks very natural
I remember this gem. Great detail and BG. Since the bird is in cool light (from the flash) and the BG in warm light (Ambient) I would consider warming the bird and perch to improve the image. See you next week.
Belted Kingfisher
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