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Kingfisher Dive



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A female Kingfisher rising up from the water below after a unsuccessful dive on Saturday afternoon, she was back for another go shortly after. It was a privileg...
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A female Kingfisher rising up from the water below after a unsuccessful dive on Saturday afternoon, she was back for another go shortly after. It was a privilege to photograph these magnificent birds.
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cameraCanon EOS 5D Mark III

settings Aperture f/6.3 ISO 1250 Shutter 1/2500 Focal Length 140/1 

upload_dateDec, 2015

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1 Comment |
isilvaphoto
 
isilvaphoto October 11, 2018
Amazing

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

#kingfisher #bird #water #stream
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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo on location in Worcestershire, United Kingdom at a site where a secluded river ran through.

Time

This was shot in the afternoon, but I spent nearly 9 hrs in the hide waiting for this particular shot, that was sharp enough. The hide and my equipment was as you imagine camouflaged as I didn't want to spook the birds in any way, silent shutter was used with a high shutter

Lighting

The lighting varied quiote a bit during the day, there is no remote flash so I was working in natural light, the morning was cloudy and overcast but the early spring afternoon sun eventually came out and it was perfect for this type of shot so not too sunny which could of blown out some of the highlights.

Equipment

This was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 70-200mm F2.8L wth remote shutter, I positioned the camera and lens at ground level and watched patiently for the Kingfisher to begin hunting for fish, and fired the remote shutter from a hide nearby to capture this remarkable shot. Settings were ISO: 1250, F6.3, Shutter 1/2500 sec.

Inspiration

My inspration is quite simply this iconic small bird that we call one of our own here in the United Kingdom, the flash of orange and blue over water and during flight is all you normally see as they are very quick birds in flight. So to get a shot as close to one of the most Iconic british birds was all my inspiration, of course I was inspired also by kingfisher diving shots and BBC wildlife documentaries and footage of diving kingfishers.

Editing

There is limited Post processing with this shot, apart from some sharpening of the bird and water droplets and minimal background correcting and cloning of some of the unwanted background drops or smudges, levels and vibrance perhaps tweaked a little in Lighroom and CS.

In my camera bag

Normally for Wildlife photography I have a 2 camera bodies a Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 7D Mark II with my favourite lens a Canon 500mm F4 L IS plus a Sigma 150-600mm F5/6.3 Contemprary lens and Canon 70-200mm F2.8L with GITZO 3532 LS Tripod

Feedback

As with all wildlife photography bags of patience is required to capture this moment, keep trying for many hours, and find a suitable spot on a river where Kingfishers use to hunt and rear young, so local knowledge of the location and the habits of the bird is also required. You would need to be extremely stealthy, so a pop up camouflaged hide is also a must with the best camera equipment you can afford and tripod or bean bag.

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