Belted Kingfisher


Posted by Mako_Elite on Mon Jan 21, 2019 2:38 am

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Shot this afternoon. Me and my friend were shooting owls since early morning and we got some shots. But as usual it got quiet and owls were not flying. We noticed this Kingfisher across the canal deep in to the grass field far away. Kingfisher was sitting on top of the wood pole about 5-6 feet tall. It was fishing and diving to the shallow water in the field. Each time it got fish and flew back to the pole and did this several times.
Since I was shooting with D2Hs and 500mm f/4 P + TC-16A I had effective 1200mm reach. There was no way I would be able to lock focus on the bird and tracking it down to the water while diving with MF lens.
I focused on the bird while it was on the pole and frame it to the left upper corner in my viewfinder and was waiting for it to dive down.
It didn't take long and bird dove down and soon as it happened I follow the bird all the way down to the water, holding down shutter only and not back focus button. Kingfisher disappeared under the water .  Few seconds later bird came out of water with the fish and I was ready holding shutter down again and tracking bird on the way up to the perch. 
Since I am using back button focusing , I made sure I was not touching it and using only shutter button at the top. Luckily distance at the perch I pre focused earlier was near the same as the landing spot on the water making bird fairly sharp throughout the whole trajectory. 

I did get some nice sequence shots on the way down and back up.
This is cropped image from D2Hs (4.1MB body) so I couldn't crop too much.

D2Hs, Nikon 500mm f/4 P ED IF + TC-16A (1.6X AF)
1/1250, ISO-1600, f/9 on tripod.

Please click on the image for uncompressed view, thank you.


Last edited by Mako_Elite on Mon Jan 21, 2019 10:42 am, edited 3 times in total.

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by Carol Clarke on Mon Jan 21, 2019 7:10 am
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Lovely action capture and great details on your methods, Ludo! I love the inclusion of the wider habitat view.

Carol.
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by Ron Day on Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:00 pm
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Ludo, a great action frame in the Kingfisher's natural habitat. The timing is perfect to catch it coming up and out of the water. I continue to be amazed at your focusing skills with long manual-focus optics. Great work.
 

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