Malachite Kingfisher

[Wynand van Wyk]

I captured this beautiful little bird 3 days ago in the Kruger National Park. He came flying out of nowhere and perched for only a few seconds before flying off again. It was still early, so the light had barely touched the perch. This all happened very fast and did not think of putting up my aperture a bit in the heat of the moment, but still happy with this image.

Technical:
Canon EOS 1D Mark 4
Canon 500mm F4.0 IS USM + 1.4 Converter
1/2500 @ F5.6 @ ISO 800
Exposure bias 0
06:03 AM

Comments and input will be appreciated! Thanks.

[Sachin Saraf]

What a capture! Looks little big in frame but love the BG, food in beak, Droplets on bird...Also color on beak and leg looks too bright but I have not seen this bird for real so not sure.

[Wynand van Wyk]

Thanks so much for the comment Sachin. These birds have amazing colours, and I think with the sweet light the colours came out like this. As I did not apply much colour in PS at all.

Thanks again!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Wynand, super pose, and close up of this jewel, and I find the colours fine, although the reds on the beak look a bit oversaturated. The flying droplets add to the image, and of course the two tiddlers probably didnt touch sides when he swallowed them.

[Mital Patel]

Wynand super duper image this is. IQ is great and so the expo looks. i feel the saturation level can go lil lower.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wynand young man you certainly know how to handle that photographic gear! Super shot, if it were mine I would like to see just a little more space above his head. I haven't actually seen one of these gems, (so maybe I am going to shoot myself in the foot!) I do appreciate they are very colourful and I suspect the colours are just a tad OTT (??) hmm, yes, I just checked the histogram, it is also perhaps just a little compressed? Nevertheless that is a fine shot - congratulations, I am envious!

[Geir Jensen]

I think you should be more than satisfied with this great picture. Maybe a little less saturation.
Regards Geir Jensen

[dankearl]

Great shot, I think a looser crop (if you have one) would be nice.
The colors are great and the prey is nice.
I would remove the drops if it were mine, they don't really look like water, just white specks.

[Alan Murphy]

The tiny fish make this image very special.

[Angad Achappa]

Superb capture, especially with the two fish, usually only see them kingfishers with one fish. Two things that i would like different here, a little more space around the bird and secondly a little saturation.

[Wynand van Wyk]

Thanks so much for the comments and input everyone!

Will go and take the saturation down a bit. Thanks!

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice image overall Wynand, detail and IQ are good and the pose with the fish is great, like to see a bit more space all around...I would make suggestion that do your adjustments on your TIFF or Raw file then resize do your bits and bobs (Whatever you do after resizing) then convert to JPEG but don't do any sat or levels, contrast etc on the JPEG as you will get the Artifacts you have in the BG of this image.

[Chuck Fritsch]

Great shot, I think a looser crop (if you have one) would be nice.
The colors are great and the prey is nice.
I would remove the drops if it were mine, they don't really look like water, just white specks.

I agree about removing the drops that look like white specks. There are some drops on the bird that look like drops . keep them.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Wow! Missed this! These guys are small and fast and beautiful and you captured him very nicely...agree that the fishies make it special!