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[Stu Bowie]

This male Pied Kingfisher was having a good look down below for his next meal. The perch is part of a tree at my favourite location in the Pilanesberg nature reserve. The BG is distant foliage on the far side of the bank. The perch was still in shade, so I have brought out the shadows.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/3200
F/6.3
ISO 500

Manual Exposure
Hand held from a hide.

[Karl Egressy]

I like the hunting pose and the wind blown feathers, Stuart. The background is nice, makes the bird pop.

[Julie Brown]

I love kingfishers, and this one is a handsome specimen. The background is very pleasing and I like the shape and texture of the perch.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Cool shot of this little guy. I really like the raised wing and perch

[Sachin Saraf]

Lovely Image Stuart...Lovely BG and nice pose of this beautiful bird

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super image - very clean and fine definition. Excellent detail in the blacks

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent shot. I really like the ruffled up feathers, nice detail, great perch, and wonderful background.
Well done.

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

Lots of good stuff going on here. Great perch, good BG, looked the fluffed up feathers, slightly open bill.

I appreciate the comment about the shadows. I wish the face/bill area was not in the shadowed area, it still seems a bit dark for me.

Did you use flash? The catchlight looks flash like, but didn't see it mentioned.


Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Did you use flash? The catchlight looks flash like, but didn't see it mentioned.


Cheers

Randy

Thanks Randy. No flash used. I have a habit of reducing the size and shape of the catchlight, and will keep in mind to mention it in future. Does it look un-natural?

Thanks to everyone else for your comments and feedback. Always appreciated.

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Lovely image Stuart. Nice bkgd, perch, bird and sharpness. Wish he was turned a couple of degrees more towards you so that the head had a bit more light. Maybe you can do a little dodge and burn and make it a little lighter.

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

It does seem more like a flash catchlight than a normal one, that is why I asked

Did you need to do any masking around the perch? I was studying the catchlight again, and the transition from perch to BG looks a bit unusual. Subtle, and could just be from the shadows.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Randy, the perch was the only part in shade, so I selected the perch only and ran a very mild S/H on it. Thats all that was done. With regards to the BG, nothing done there, just some NR on the whole BG. I hope I understood what you were asking. Cheers.

[gail bisson]

I never tire of pied kingfishers. This is lovely. I like the wind blown feathers and the perch and BG are textbook perfect. No nits from me .
Gail

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the hunters stance/stare, perch, ruffled feathers and BG. Well done Stuart!

[MohsenVahedipour]

Very nice pose & perch, excellent composition, IQ & lovely clean BG.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much for your feedback and comments.