Pied kingfisher on papyrus reed

[gail bisson]

Canon 7D
f4 500mm and 1.4x converter
ISO 640
SS 1/1600
Aperture priority at +1/3
Full frame vertical. No crop!!
LR3 and NR and S&H in CS5
7:00am on tripod in pontoon boat.
Comments and critiques appreciated and learned from

[Daniel Cadieux]

What a great perch! I was going to ask if you had more room but I see it is FF!! Had you had time it would have been neat to remove the TC to get more of the awesome perch in there. Still wish you had pointed your lens a bit more to the left. A head turned a bit more our way would have better lit the face with the light coming from the left but realize the KF may not have cooperated.

Nice image though, I love the feel, and very nice BG too (an option would be to clone in some green above the tans in LLC). Good tough exposure, and nice details.

[gail bisson]

Thanks Daniel. I only had time to fire off 2 shots before the bird took off. If only there was a button one could press to instantly deactivate the 1.4X!!
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Like the new 200-400 that is in perpetual delay mode

[Ofer Levy]

The perch makes this image for me! Would crop a tiny bit off the top.

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

The perch is what sets this one off. Good thoughts from both Daniel and Ofer.

I might try a version with the catchlight brought up ever so slightly.

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Crosswell]

Nice image Gail! I like the perch and pose. The eye looks kind of flat to me.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, what makes me think that going on your previous post, and this post, you have either fallen in love with kingfishers, or you saw a lot of them - either way, they are great subjects. Well exposed on this male, and great that he's in the open, and a bonus that he's against a non sky BG. Cool perch and pose, and I like the placement. Well done on capturing him vertically.

[Ishmeet Sahni]

Wow!!! that was the first thing that hit me, when the image opened. Then I wished that there was little more space on the right.
Then I read Randy's comment, I realised I wasn't alone. That said, its a BRILLIANT image, the BG and the perch are just amazing.....

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Gail, very nice perch indeed...so unique. liked the exp. and BG as well.

[Tin Man Lee]

Stunning photo, Gail, and welcome back. Beautiful perch. Amazing you could get so close to the kingfisher. Great sharpness, details, lovely background, everything I would dream of.

[Grace Scalzo]

Beautiful, Gail. I like how the light angle gives this image dimension. Where were you?

[gail bisson]

Beautiful, Gail. I like how the light angle gives this image dimension. Where were you?

Hi Grace,
I did a workshop at Xaro Lodge, Botswana with Albert Froneman( he and Chris van Rooyen own Afrimage) in late october. Absolutely amazing!
Gail

[dankearl]

The perch is really cool.
I also would like a bigger view, but obviously not possible.
Great shot to get, funny looking little birds!

[Brendan Dozier]

Great looking kingfisher, Gail, vertical frame works well, and the curved shape and texture to that perch really makes this composition. Well done!
What were some of the most important things you learned about photography during this fantastic trip?

[gail bisson]

Great looking kingfisher, Gail, vertical frame works well, and the curved shape and texture to that perch really makes this composition. Well done!
What were some of the most important things you learned about photography during this fantastic trip?

Hi Brendan,
What a great question!
The light in Africa was the trickiest thing to deal with. Even though it was "squint your eyes" type of light I still needed to shoot at ISO of 640 to 1000 most of the time. I certainly wasn't expecting this and thought I would be shooting at 200 to 640 for most of the workshop. We spent a lot of time shooting skimmers at dusk and it was excellent practice for BIF. I just wish I had a 1D Mark IV instead of the 7D because of the unexpected high ISO's I had to deal with.
We also spent time taking pics of carmine bee-eaters in flight and Albert taught me how to autofocus on the branch the bird would land on, then change to manual focus, move camera to left or right of perch and fire away when bird approached the perch.
At lunchtime, Albert taught me how to "transplant" an eye in CS5 as I have a lovely shot of a malachite but his nictitating membrane was down. This info can now translate to clipped wingtips etc. I also learned about Viveza.
This is not photography related but I also learned that I must be the only person who goes to Africa and GAINS weight!!!...all that great SA wine...and the food was excellent everywhere we went!!
Gail

[Dan Busby]

Just adding to all the kudos Gail - very nice all around. A bit more room would have been nice but comp is not terrible as is. The photogenic perch and the sharp head angle really keep one looking. I imagine you will have a bucket load of great images from your trip to come.

[arash_hazeghi]

very interesting perch and good details, TFS!