Brown hooded kingfisher

Like my previous upload, this was taken in Zambia a few weeks ago. It was taken from a boat, and I was lucky to have a clear blue sky as a background. The biggest problem was the small branch in front of the one the bird was sitting on. If anyone can suggest a better way of handling it than the way I have done so, I would be very interested to hear it. I don't want to clone that branch out, as I think it will be too obvious.

Techy stuff:
Nikon D200 and 50-500mm Sigma at 500mm, 400asa
Auto shutter speed at f11
Slight crop from full frame, slight tweaks to exposure and sharpness of the bird.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

David Sewell
Herne Bay, UK

D'you know - I didn't notice the offending branch! How fortunate it follows the line of the other one. Cracking bird. Lovely colours and good detail. Maybe a tad too off-centre - there's a lot of space on the left.

Ditto! I never noticed it either !
I agree with Ian its a bit far to the right.
Good stuff though.
Cheers
JR
PS You could take ote small branch and make the one its sitting look thinner but is it worth the hassle ? Not really.

Love these birds David, saw plenty in Kenya & India, good colour & detail. Perhaps up the blue in the sky and more 'pano' in crop?

Steve

Hi

Damn... after reading previous posts all I can focus on is that offending branch.

Before that, nice sharp shot, little too far over on the crop, but thats taste.

Regards chris

No problem with the branch, crop this to a square and you have a really cracking shot here.

Excellent portrait.

Sorry never noticed your point ,lovely bird very well taken.

Keith.

Very nice David, I too hadn't noticed the branch until I read your notes! Agree about crop suggestions - maybe about 1-1.5cm off the left edge and 2-3 off the top as it is on screen - would place the eye on the upper, right thirds?