Flying Shoebill

by Ken Watkins

Gallery: AvianPosted June 4, 201560 views7 comments

Whilst undoubtedly a privilege to see these birds, image taking can be extremely boring.

Shoebills are apt to sit rarely moving for hours, needless to say I was not ready for this one to take off and flyI

Taken in the papyrus swamps at the southern end of Lake Albert, Uganda.

I had a lot of processing to do as this was shot into the sun, hope it has worked out reasonably?

EOS 1DX

200-400mm F4 @200mm

F7.1

ISO 400

1/5000

( settings from previous stationary shots)

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on June 4, 2015 at 7:36 AM

Hey, Ken. Patience is a virtue. While this image may not be of stellar quality, it shows a Shoebill in flight, which I have never seen before. That head is just crazy big. Thanks for putting in the time to capture this.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on June 4, 2015 at 1:29 PM

Positively prehistoric, Ken. Nice work on the processing.

devil

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

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on June 4, 2015 at 8:19 PM

Maybe not prehistoric, but certainly antediluvian! Good catch and processing. This is a bird I will never see, except in pictures, so I appreciate the effort you put into this.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on June 6, 2015 at 6:51 AM

Thanks everybody for your comments, I will return next year to try again,

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Peter J. Morrissey on June 7, 2015 at 12:18 PM

HI Ken

You have posted a really nice shot. I like the the detail and framing. Keep up the great work.

Peter

Registered on July 3, 2011, 188 Posts, 969 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on June 7, 2015 at 9:32 PM

Your patience really paid off Ken...great job on this. Love these guys...they are so prehistoric looking. Congrats on the reward and nice work!

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

Comment posted by Gary Minish on June 9, 2015 at 3:15 AM

Excellent shot of a flying dinosaur, Ken! I think you did a great job of pulling out the detail in the shadows and it's a nice sharp capture! An incredibly unique and strange bird frown

Registered on February 4, 2006, 625 Posts, 3583 Comments