Belted Kingfisher Flight

Posted by Steve Cirone on Thu Sep 29, 2005 9:59 am

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Belted Kingfisher. Ceryle alcyon.

Santee, California. Sept. 23, 2005. I have been tracking this elusive little bird for several shoots. I used the Mark 2 handheld so I could swing around faster, 500 f4, 400 ISO, 1/3000th, f4, manual exposure.

The sun was going down behind me and the bird would drop into the shadow of a hill. He just barely popped up into the ultra orange light when I shot this. A major crop, 80% thrown away. I tried most of the next day for closer proximity with no luck.

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Last edited by Steve Cirone on Thu Sep 29, 2005 9:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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by Chris Kayler on Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:10 am

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I really like the comp here. It's too bad about the crop, causing a rather large loss of detail..

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by Carol Clarke on Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:22 am

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For such a crop you have still retained a lot of detail in the plumage and colours Steve! Wonderful 'angel' pose and these little birds move so fast!

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by Van Hilliard on Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:30 am

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I'll just say one thing: Wow!!

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by jim monroe on Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:53 am

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I agree with Carol for such a crop you retained a lot of detail.
Beautiful positioning and from what I have seen of these birds one very difficult bird to get near and in flight fast so added difficullty there as well.

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by AForns on Thu Sep 29, 2005 10:56 am

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Steve this is one of those images that just getting it is a big deal !!! Big Congrats !!! Exceptional pose !!! :)

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by Rob Palmer on Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:07 pm

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80% crop and still a wonderful capture.

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by Bruce Sherman on Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:08 pm

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Pretty good for an 80% crop. I have had pretty good luck with the 1DII, 500, and 1.4X TC hand-held (not on kingfishers, unfortunately). I bet you could do it.

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by Gerald J Romanchuk on Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:15 pm

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Nice flight shot!

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by Campbell on Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:51 pm

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Nice shot! Every time I see one of these at Santee, they are flying away from me...fast!

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by Ofer Levy on Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:01 pm

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Beautiful position! :)

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by mrhughj on Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:10 pm

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Don't worry about the crop, Steve!!!!!! The fact that the kingfisher is facing you, with its head turned, is almost impossible to arrange.

Hugh

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by Neil Solomon on Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:40 pm

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Steve,

A good looking shot even with the crop. If you know where to find him consistently, its now time to try the 1.4X. That hover really makes it all possible.

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by Nick Dunlop on Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:42 pm

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Great timing. Looks good for the amount of cropping you did and figuring downsizing the image for the web knocks it down also. :)

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by Miguel Lasa on Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:46 pm

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full wings and a happy bird , beautiful light too !!

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by Bruce DiVaccaro on Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:04 pm

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Steve,

Excellent shot. You captured a great pose. Well done.

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by Alan Murphy on Thu Sep 29, 2005 4:04 pm

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A wonderful shot Steve. I'd remove one of the catchlights.

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by Mike Wilson on Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:45 pm

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Simply nuts Steve and I hate you.

We really worked hard to get him lately and you really scored on this one. Cropped too tight for me though.

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by Scott Fairbairn on Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:14 pm

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It's a cool shot no matter the crop, I'm really jealous of all these great kingfisher images(I wouldn't dare to post mine).

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by Steve Cirone on Thu Sep 29, 2005 9:35 pm

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Alan Murphy wrote:A wonderful shot Steve. I'd remove one of the catchlights.

Thanks for the compliment and suggestion, Alan. That was one thing I was hemming about. The catch lights. I was a little surprised to see two as I did not have a flash on my camera at the time. After studying the original blown way up I figured out the catch lights are actually the sky and horizon which got split in two by what I believe to be a big mass of trees and bushes.

I now see removing one would be better.

My theory of what caused the two catch lights got shot down with a laugh by my friends at dinner tonight. Never mind.

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Last edited by Steve Cirone on Sat Oct 01, 2005 2:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

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