SB Kingfisher in Profile

I like the comp and colors as well as the angle of the bird. I do see it's a bit soft, but it's still a nice capture of a very cool bird.

Very nice capture under the circumstances Ashley, well done

cheers
Rob

Thanks for taking the time to view and share comments Bryan and Rob :^)

Hopefully next time (I have to be optimistic insofar as believing there'll be a next time!) my experience from this trip will have me better prepared for the unexpected and skilled enough to make even more of every given opportunity ;^)

Thanks again and all the best :^)

Ashley

Ashley, while it is a bit soft, I would welcome it into my photos anytime! I think the colors of the bird are great, and actually like the BG as it gives a good sense of the habitat the bird is in without taking away from the image. Thanks for sharing, and the story behind the image.

Nice capture of one very cool bird. Thanks for sharing.
May

A strong image, Ashley. I like the comp you chose for this bird, even though it probably wouldn't work for most images, it does here because of the subject shape and lines.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and comments John, May, and Wayne, much appreciated :^)

Good getting this from the boat - the blue looks a bit too saturated on my monitor. The ones I've seen in Singapore and the west coast of Malaysia are not the deep blue that I am seeing.

Awesome bird, Sweet Photo Ashley Sounds like you were lucky just to get him within the view finder.

Ken Archer

Thanks for viewing and posting comments KC and Ken :^)

KC: As it happens, I have other shots of the exact same Kingfisher, taken a little later further downstream, in which the blue of the wing feathers appear as a much lighter hue, and I was tempted to desaturate the blue in this image and the first one I posted, but not only is this the way the camera caught the colour for these two shots (i.e. I didn't add any further saturation to the blues to achieve this effect) but I distinctly recall being amazed in the few moments I had to shot these shots at how much more intense the colours were of this subject through the viewfinder, hence the reason why I left these two as close to how the camera captured them in vivid colour as it did.

I can only assume that the effect had something to do the the different light reflecting off the subject in this particular situation. Though I'm open to alternative opinions ;^)

Ken: Yep, I consider these two images among the luckiest I've ever shot and, quiet frankly, it still baffles me how I managed to shoot them without any need to adjust the horizontal plane in post processing in light of the contorted position my body was twisted in while leaning out over the edge of the boat as we drifted on by - LOL ;^)

Thanks again guys and wishing you a great one ahead :^)

Ashley

Excellent photo, real nice background. Great detail in the bird. As stated above the colors look a tad over saturated. Other than that fabulous pic. Well done.

Thanks for adding your comment Robert :^)

Gorgeous bird with a great oversized beak. You have a nice image of him here. I'm surprised you needed to bring it up 2 stops since the lights seems to be shining right down on him. It appears to have introduced some noise, but the positives of this image outweigh that issue-and I thinks it can be corrected in post-processing.

Thanks for posting your comment Angela and pleased you liked this image :^)

Although you'll probably have to click back to the last page of threads (or by now perhaps one more), the previous thread I posted up (entitled "Learning from Experience") explains a lot more of this setting and situation I was in when I took these images.

In quick summary, just before these shots were taken I'd inadvertently flipped my mode knob from aperture priority to shutter priority and given it a setting of 1/1600, which turned the capture almost completely black; hence the reason why I needed to push the exposure so much in post-processing ;^)

I know there are still flaws, but frankly I'm overjoyed that I managed to salvage and get it to this stage especially for all I went through to get it, as I explained in far more detail in the previous thread :^)

Thanks again and, BTW, I always enjoy looking at your images too :^)

Ashley

what a cool bird. The comp works for me, too bad for the detail, but it's still very nice to see such a bird. Thanks for sharing.

And thank you for viewing and leaving a comment Andrius :^)