Azure Kingfisher fishing

Critiques welcome. Thanks.

Awesome capture!

Very nice flight shot and details. 7 

Regards Antino 

First, let me congradulate you on a nice shot. Wonderful color and composition, with perfect timing.

My only question is, why F7.1? It was shot at 1/1250th, but why not stop down a shoot a hair faster? DOF couldn't have been an issue, cause it was obviously cropped pretty hard to show this much grain. What lens were you shooting with. Not bustin' your chops or anything, I just have to think if you were at F5.6 or better, you could easily had shot at 1/1600th and captured more detail. Either way, well done. 

Thanks Kenneth.

To answer your questions:

Subject - relatively small, extremely fast, extremely shy, very difficult to approach, very difficult to predict where it was going to be when it dived, hence the 900mm and cropping

Shutter speed - I didn't want to freeze the wings.

Aperture - the light was variable with intermittent cloud. I wanted some latitude to open up the lens when it was cloudy, while maintaining my selected SS. Otherwise, I would have shot at 200 ISO, not 400. Additionally, I didn't think that given the range of distances where the bird may have been, that f4 or 5.6 would cut it, closer in.

All in all, it was a lovely day down by the Kangaroo River.

Thanks again.

 

 

Fair enough Ford. Still a fantastic shot. Better than most in my portfolio. You do amazing work.

This thread makes for an interesting read....... thank you.

Brilliant head shot........ great clarity and colour. Love the highlight.

Yes, these little devils are incredibly fast..... never caught one myself.

Great capture and presentation......... well done.

Regards 

 

Beautiful bird! Impressive capture. Very nice complementary background. I like the wing motion. I think it adds to the effect of the image.

Thanks Kenneth, Grayham and Phil.

You blokes are very generous and I sincerely appreciate it.

@ Kenneth - I suppose one of the things that comes out of my response to your questions is the need to be tactical in your approach. I very seldom shoot opportunistically as those images almost always look like snapshots. Planning an image is an intellectual exercise and that is half the fun.

In the words of Comrade Chief Inspector Arkady Renko (Gorky Park) 1984:

"I watch, and I think, and I wait. It is my only virtue."

 Thinking about the light, knowing the animal's behaviour/habits and how it will respond to your presence, thinking about the wind strength and direction with birds in flight, etc, etc, etc and putting yourself in the right place to allow those things to work for you to build an image.

 Its about applying as much control as possible to the variables and then choosing and setting up your gear to provide you with the widest latitude to deal with expected probabilities. Having said all that, its nearly always the unexpected that offers up the best images!

I enjoy your rhetoric and sense of humour........... welcome aboard.

Regards

So true, and words to live by. I am always "setting up" based on all the variables, the first being light. But at the end of the day, it SO TRUE that the shot that takes the day is the one that came out of nowhere. Thanks.

Lovely overall colors and impressive body position! The blurred wings add even more to the sense of motion! Well done, regards from Greece.