KINGFISHER BiF — how lucky can one be?

[Nikkor Shooter]

[Hugh_3170]

Indeed - perfect timing - and how unusual for a BIF.  Makes this beautiful animal in the first image look like a missile!

[Nikkor Shooter]

Indeed - perfect timing - and how unusual for a BIF.  Makes this beautiful animal in the first image look like a missile!

… and it flies like one too: low, straight and fast.


The difficulties with the KF is that they never land for long
to give one much time to admire them. They do everything
in overdrive:

• take offs are without notice
• landings quite unpredictable
• fishing is measured in deci-seconds
• vanishing in a blink

[Airy]

Thanks for sharing. Seen two in my whole life: one fishing in a pond in downtown Lille (?!), another one in Yoyogi park in Tokyo / Shibuya.

[Peter Connan]

Quite lucky apparently. Having tried to shoot their South African cousin a few times, I know just how difficult it is.

But one needs a really fast shutter speed to freeze them, and I think yours could have benefited from a bit more. Next time?

[Nikkor Shooter]

But one needs a really fast shutter speed to freeze them, and I think yours could have benefited from a bit more. Next time?

The used SS was 1/1600s… fast enough, I think. The problem
was that these supersonic buggers are hard to follow and I was
still fighting, panning fast, to catch this one!

[Peter Connan]

I hope you don't mind me posting this image on your thread.

It dates back to May 2014, my first decent sighting of the Malachite Kingfisher. This guy is just busy taking off, and if you look carefully, you will notice that the face is noticeably softer than the feet. Shutter speed was 1/2000th...

And yes, it is over-exposed too.

[Nikkor Shooter]

I hope you don't mind me posting this image on your thread.

Surely not… it is a thread, Peter, not a gallery!

if you look carefully, you will notice that the face is noticeably softer than the feet. Shutter speed was 1/2000th...

… but what was the aperture?

And yes, it is over-exposed too.

Not really… just rendered too hot but nothing a
tonal taming tweak could not resolve!

[Peter Connan]

Aperture was f7.0, ISO 1000, camera D7000.

But zooming in on the high-resolution version (which I won't post because I don't have enough data), the softness is clearly due to movement.

[Nikkor Shooter]

Aperture was f7.0, ISO 1000, camera D7000.

Distance to subject and focal length?

[ArthurDent]

 My experience, mostly on larger birds, is that I get decent bif images at 1/3200 sec. at up to iso 6400 using f/7.1 on the 70-200 lens, vr off and D500 body. So, I think you might get a sharper image if you are willing to accept a slightly higher iso. It takes some experimentation to find out what works best with your lens and body combo, but generally speaking I find shutter speeds of 1/2500 sec. and faster work best for bif.

I love the plummage on your kingfisher image, truly a beautiful bird. Thanks for posting!

[Seapy]

I don't seem problem with some movement blur.  It doesn't have to be razor sharp everywhere, like frozen in time.  It's a living thing, it moves, in the case of this particular species, very fast.

[MILLIREHM]

Well one is always lucky when one sees a Kingfisher even more when it is banned on film (memory card) and one has a documentation. This brings a lot of joy and thanks of sharing this with us and i am sure some will enjoy this documentation too. The best place would have been in the nature photography section. As this is the Critique section i'd like to add the following:

Well you got the Kingfisher pretty right, but the IQ is not sufficient, which adresses the resolution (cropped too heavily) and the colors which are "blackened" in connection with the too noisy image (and maybe not the best light as well).

In my experience you'd need 1/2000 -1/4000 to freeze a fast moving bird, or go below if you want some movement blur. The latter can enrich a picture, but then  more details than your crop can provide are favorable (actually your second image shows some nice movement blur in the wings).

[Nikkor Shooter]

in the case of this particular species, very fast.

Very fast indeed and unpredictable too!

…and maybe not the best light as well…

Can't always choose the shooting conditions nor
when these little fellows show up!

[Peter Connan]

Distance to subject and focal length?

Don't know (perhaps 6-10m) and 500mm.