Kingfisher

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 500mm f4 L IS ISO 500 -0.33, 1/125 sec f6.3

Shot taken very early and equally cold morning.

All C & C welcome.

[gail bisson]

Hi Jonathan,
This is a great shot. I love the steam from his breath. Very very cool (pardon the pun).The perch is stunning with the moss and lichen. Love his little feet. I think this image would be over the top if you moved the bird to the right in the frame. He is too centered as is.(9.5 out of 10 with this one and if you move him to the right you get 10 out of 10!!)
Gail

[jack williamson]

Excellent Jonathan! The perch is fabulous (did you take it home with you?) I love the steam from his breath, very unusual in a bird image. The bg and the bird are just right and I can see Gails' point about the crop but then you loose some of that awesome perch.

Jack

[Sachin Saraf]

Great shot Jonathan..Beautiful bird and perch..love that classic pose and agree with Gail to move it to right in the frame...I would also lighten it up slightly.

[EzhilSuresh]

Jonathan, wonderful shot. I'd like to know more about how this was shot.

[dankearl]

This is really nice.
A bit looser crop would work for me as well.
The color is terrific.

[Ron Sprunger]

Spectacular image! Agree with Gail, and think you could just crop off the brightest part of the perch on the right to accomplish it. That would also get rid of the round spot (flare?) above the perch. What a gorgeous backlight!

I'd like to make one bird image of this incredible quality in my life.

[christopher galeski]

nice image Jonathan,nice colors,crackin perch,good BG,like the warm breath,there is a hair showing bottom of the frame on the left,and a lighter grey mark on the right just a bove the perch, as RON as spotted,agree on his sugestion.but a very nice image.well done.

[Melissa Groo]

Fantastic image, Jonathan. Love that perch, the backlighting, the colors, and that visible breath just puts it over the top.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jon, good attentive pose from the KF, and the colours look spot on from here. Interesting perch with the varied lichen, and good sharpness for your slow ss. I cant remember ever seeing a birds breath visible in an image, so it just shows how cold it was, and that your BG shows that up so well. I would try and tone down his plumage on the RHS. Other than that, an opportunity well used.

[Frank Schauf]

Exellent image quality, great details and sharpness.

[Mat Bingham]

Image is fantastic very envious.

[arash_hazeghi]

this is super love everything including the breadth! never seen it before, must have been REALLY cold!

[Melvin Grey]

Beautiful image, Jonathan. The soft side/back lighting has really brought out the qualities of her feathers. I am sure that you know, but for the benefit of others, the red lower mandible indicates that 'he' is a she!
Superb perch, it has a great collection of mosses and lichens!! The condensed breath certainly adds to the atmosphere - no pun intended - but I am surprised that other viewers haven't seen this before.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks very much everyone for your C & C.