Blue, blue, electric blue

I have been regularly visiting an undisturbed gravel pit for nearly a year now. The place has bags of potential but being undisturbed everything seems to be far more wary than it would be in places where they are more used to human beings. There are kingfishers there all the time, but they are so hard to get close too and I had never yet managed a decent shot.
It is undisturbed because it involves a mile long hike the last two hundred yards of which involves ploughing through head-high brambles, nettles and himalayan balsam.
Today I arrived sweating, cursing and knackered at my hide and set up. I never saw a thing for an hour but then this guy turned up out of the blue and perched perfectly on a branch right in front of me. I rattled off 2mb of pics and reached for another card. What a pratt, they were all at home.
I quickly whizzed through the card and chucked out 50 of what I thought were the worst, only to have it reappear and perfom for another ten minutes. This time I only dared to ditch about a dozen, so I hung on and sure enough he came back again and after I had used up all the empties, his mate appeared as well. So now I had two of them leaping about and showing off in front of me and no card-space. They performed for another thirty minutes even daring to sit on the edge of the hide before finally disappearing so that I could stomp off home. The moral of this story is glaringly obvious.

40D; 500 f4.5
iso 200; 1/80; f8
cropped 4:3 to try and improve the dodgy comp (I know it's a bit close down below)

C&C more than welcome.
Eric

Reminds me of the old angling story about the one that got away.
Mind you, if I was a bird fan I would be more than satisfied with this image. Excellent indeed.

hi eric

fab photo, these birds are absolutely great, colours and all, this is my next project as i really would like to get a shot like yours, a just reward for your effort, you must be well chuffed
well done indeed

jeff acreman

Brilliant image I really like the colours and pose, at least you got a few! Imagine what it was like back in the film days...

Moral as maybe...I bet you enjoyed the experience!!

Nice stuff eric

A gorgeous shot and I love the colours and pose. A great return for your struggles.

Tim

Fantastic image . I remember arriving on site once only to find I had no cards!

Hi Eric
You covered my only nit - lovely feel to the shot, largely down to the light and the lovely pose adopted by the bird. A really appealing image; I would get too frrustrated.

Cheers,
Chris

Very nice and super sharp Eric - lovely capture.

Am working on a KF project myself at the moment, and they can be frustrating in the extreme !

I've done the 'not enough memory' trick myself - very annoying !

On the other hand Eric look at the opportunity it gave you to just observe not hindered by the necessity to take shots

OK, partly trying to make you feel better, but also true.

great shot Eric and a just reward for your patience. The light and detail are spot on. I can relate to your card story, although I'm particularly fond of leaving batteries at home.

Matt

Hi Eric a fab looking image.

Phil.

I can relate to the story, but if you have a card full of images of similar quality to this one I don't think you have too much to be upset about. A cracker.

David

Hi Eric,
That's a beautifully sharp,crisp image and very nicely processed too.
I can relate to the nightmare of running out of storage space,a couple of 8GB cards ensures it won't happen again.

Superb quality Eric, nice one!

Tim

A beautiful shot Eric. Well worth the hike and the patience. Detail is spot on, a lovely composition, background and perch. What more could you want - other than another memory card

Very nice Eric

You have covered the only nit I had

Hi Eric

Nit covered - great light, detail, colours, pose and nicely processed!

David

Great story - although I doubt if you could have got an image any better than this one. It's a cracker! I don't mind square, so I would crop a little from the left.

nice story - great image - love the detail especially the eye, I like the crop as it is, or as Ian says, maybe a little off the LHS would improve a little - great perseverance and well captured.

cheers

Colin

Hi Eric,

I agree with whats been said, cracking shot, just could have been a little stronger comp wise.

Thats nothing, I turned up on a site last year with no batteries!!! Lol, now that is bad!

Cheers,

Lewis.

It’s all been said, a wonderful picture.

Bob.

Nothing more I can add apart from the 'tightness' below isn't a problem for me as the bird is looking up.....

Brilliant Eric, simply brilliant image!

Sounds like you had to control; yourself and think about every shot, more than you would have if you'd remebered all your memory cards. and its shows!

Really nice work Eric.. Don't think I can add more to what has been said but congrats on getting something very good from your hard work.

Brett

Hello Eric.

Very nice worth your efforts and the pose is great.

I just wanted to say thanks for the kind comments. It's always the same when that opportunity finally comes. You want to go back the next day and can't get a spare day for at least a week.
Eric

Nob. .. I am only Jealous. !!


Mark.G

Stunning !!
perfect !!

Bert.