Belted Kingfisher

Gallery: AvianPosted July 31, 2013196 views6 comments

I've been away from my camera for the last several weeks but I did however find some time last week to shoot for a few hours on a trip to St. John's Newfoundland. This female Belted was fishing in a local pond just outside the city proper. I set up my tripod and tried to predict where her next dive would occur. A faster SS would have been nice, but I didn't want to push the ISO much higher as it was mid-morning when I captured this.

D3s
500mm f/4
1/640s @ f/6.3
ISO 500
-1EV
Gitzo
Wimberley II

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Mike Ramy on July 31, 2013 at 1:51 PM

Outstanding Chuck,
Any capture of a Kingfisher to me is a good day and this image has great action, good detail and the water is perfect.
Every were I go, the Kingfishers are so illusive and so fast that I have yet to get a decent capture.
Well done . . .

Registered on June 16, 2012, 567 Posts, 2809 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on July 31, 2013 at 6:16 PM

Hi Chuck,
This is a shot that makes me think of what it could have been. It looks like you got pretty good focus on the kf coming out of the water, which I know from experience is very difficult. There isn't any reason with that camera body to drop the iso below 800 unless you already have a lot of shutter speed and it's going to be a big crop. In this case I would have been at iso 1600, these birds fly very fast. Because your shutter speed wasn't fast enough, it's not quite sharp and if it had been it would have been an award winning type image. As it is, it's still pretty nice.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on July 31, 2013 at 9:46 PM

Great action, Charles and a very good prediction for where she'd dive. I agree that a little more shutter speed would have been nice, but quite good as posted.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on July 31, 2013 at 10:34 PM

Charles, my suggestions on this one just echo what Nate said. I would have wanted to be on at least 1/2000 for this type of action shot with this species. However, still a great job getting this image, not easy to do at all with kingfishers. This species is hard to even get close to let alone manage a flight image with a meal, so congratulations there.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on August 1, 2013 at 4:35 AM

Fantastic action Charles

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Roger Leekam on August 1, 2013 at 8:01 AM

Nice try! This is one of the toughest shots created by Nature. The only way is by predicting where the bird will hit the water as you have done. I think the shutter speed has to be at least 1/1000 and as much DOF as light will allow, also acceptance of a large field of view (followed by fervent prayer to the Gods of Photography)

Registered on May 28, 2009, 83 Posts, 646 Comments