Taken in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, these Kingfishers are fairly common. I had been photographing the male for a while and had already got numerous perching shots, so I decided to set up for a take off shot, knowing how fast these guys are I pushed my ISO high to get enough speed to freeze any action. Suddenly the male and female returned to the perch and the male proceeded to feed the female a huge dragonfly, it was gone within seconds.
I just wish I had been on a friendlier ISO for this shot as I did not need 1/3200 sec for this action
Canon 1DMK4
500mm
1/3200 sec
f 6.7
ISO 3200
All c&c welcome
Cheers,
Stu
Comments
23 commentsI also love the way the perch curves and bends into the LR hand corner, really balances the composition well.
Quick question: Was this taken handheld or were you using some kind of support and, if so, what kind?
Actually, just thought of another question if you will ;^) Did you purposely chose f/6.7 for the anticipated "take-off" shot? Although I've not thought of this before, seeing this setting makes me think perhaps this is the best way to ensure a better chance of an in-focus shot seeing as there's no way to know which direction the subject will zip off in. Does this logical thought (to me!) make any sense to you? :^.
Ashley, I was shooting from a tripod with a wimberley (this shot was actually taken in one of the camps where I could set up and not have to shoot from the vehicle.
Apologies, the aperture should read f 6.3 and NOT f 6.7, apologies for the typo
As you know, small birds are extremely fast so I knew I wanted to freeze action so I chose 1/3200 sec, then to obtain the correct exposure in Manual Mode, I ended up with ISO 3200 and f 6.7 Ideally I would have like to have shot this at f 8 to get more depth, but that would have meant using an ISO of 5000 which was way off the chart, so it was a compromise I made at the time. I was also banking on a lot of luck :) generally the bird was taking off to the right as we look at it.
A better exposure combination for me would have been 1/500 sec f 8 ISO 800 (which would have been fine for the perching shot, but too slow for a take off shot)
Did you score success with one of these Kingfishers taking off or in flight in the end?
Catching near-on or actually perfect shots of Kingfishers, Rollers, and Hoopoes with wings outstretched in flight is my #1 goal with birds at the moment; been attempting this for about three months now and seem to be getting closer all the time, but certainly not quite there yet ;^)
What a great capture. I really like the perch and the interaction between the two fishers. The background is what really sets this image off though. Even with the lighting not being great you nailed the exposure. Really like this image Stu. Would love to see the flight shot if you got it!!!
no luck with the flight shot although I did get a few of the whole bird, the focus was poor, I tried different techniques, servo tracking as well as manual focus, but it was so unpredictable as to which way the bird would take off that I was not successful, I needed some luck !!
Ken Archer
cheers
Rob
I tried catching these guys at St Lucia but they didnt behave themselves and left me waiting
in vain for them
I have also seen them many times in the KNP.