Kingfishers up close

[mistral105]

Had the opportunity last week to spend a day in a hide set up by a pro wildlife photography for photographing kingfishers.

From 8am until 6pm approx every 45 mins a KF landed on the perch for typically 3 minutes. I now have over 1200 images of KFs.

The day was very foggy at 8am and slowly the fog lifters so by 3pm the light was OK - hence the ISOs range from 6400 at 8am to 400 at 3pm. I tried various shutter speeds and apertures. When the KF is perched it is generally quite still so slow shutter speeds will work allowing smaller apertures and lower ISOs.

Overall really pleased with the images - now need to work on properly processing them and also to delete the very similar images - at 12fps in bursts lots of the images appear very similar.

Will definitely go there again - hopefully in slighter brighter light.

1DX + 600mmMKII and also 600mmMKII + 1.4xMKIII used for most images.

Regards John


Kingfisher Flickr-7399-2 by mistral105, on Flickr


Kingfisher Flickr-7338 by mistral105, on Flickr


Kingfisher Flickr-7321 by mistral105, on Flickr


Kingfisher Flickr-6993 by mistral105, on Flickr


Kingfisher Flickr-6729 by mistral105, on Flickr


Kingfisher Flickr-6640 by mistral105, on Flickr

[pelliott1954]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Astounding!! I would be happy with just 1 like them never mind 1200.

Regards Paul

[mistral105]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Many thanks Paul - the set up is the key - obviously the pro photographer had spent 3 years or so in setting up the hide in the right spot - we just had to be patient over the day - Regards John

[Alan Campbell]

Re: Kingfishers up close

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING !!!
Well done, can't pick a favourite.

Alan

[Guesty]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Wow!

I prefer the lighter/paler background of the last three, but would have been stoaked to have taken any of these! :thumbup:

[Brian Sugden]

Re: Kingfishers up close

An amazing set of images. A great perch and fantastic background. Good luck with the post processing!

Regards,

Brian

[Papathanassi]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Well done John, all are top drawer so no faults from me! Glad you both enjoyed the day, Kingfisher's are or can be very addictive.

Papa.

[Montana 5]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Fantastic set, great work.

Doug.

[mistral105]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Many thanks Alan - pleased you like them - Regards John

[mistral105]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Manu thanks Guesty - the last 3 were taken in the morning when the light levels were lower due to fog/mist. Regards John

[mistral105]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Many thanks Brian - Regards John

[mistral105]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Many thanks Colin - Hope to see you soon. Regards John

[mistral105]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Many thanks Doug - Regards John

[Stan]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Excellent shots John - a bit more expensive than going for the more local ones though

Stan

[mistral105]

Re: Kingfishers up close

Cheers Stan - works out around 10p per shot - I'll make some prints from them. I'm seeking out our local KFs - I have seen them on the River Itchen close to where we live - now need to set up a hide. Regards John