European Kingfisher (M) II

Andreas Liedmann · Mar 15, 2023

Capture One 23 Macintosh

Hi folks ... can't resist to keep going with the KF stuff .
This time for sure a little bit different ... one of my numerous attempts to get a KF emerging from the water with a fish .
For me personally really difficult to execute it , at that location under the given light situation and not being able to flash the scene .
Image was shot remotely from the hide ..while the R3 with the rf 70 - 200 was resting on the ground , roughly 2.5 meters away from the diving site . Albeit I tried to figure out what aperture I do need to get the highest chance to get the bird in focus ... only about 10 % has been acceptable . The rest was not usable ... due to all sorts of issues .
Focus was set manually and then fired the trigger once the KF started diving from the perch , stopping once he landed back on the perch .
So i was firing the R3 with my iPhone via the Canon connect app and used the 1Dx with the 200 - 400 to shoot them once they were back on the perch :bg3::bg3:. Sometimes I got mixed up and fired the R3 while one KF was sitting on the perch ... or other way round , firing the 1Dx while the KF was diving :eek3:.
IN the end it was great fun and the two Kf´s really did a great show for me .... just the weather was really **** !!!

Hope you still enjoy my KF work , if not , well I will post more ....

Canon EOS R3
RF 70 - 200 IS L 2,8 at 135 mm
Bean bag
iPhone remote control via bluetooth and Wifi

F 7,1 ; Iso 25600 ; 1/3200 sec

Processed with Capture One and PSCC 2023 ; cropped to about 70 % of FF

Thanks for looking and commenting to my previous psotings

Cheers Andreas

Dorian Anderson · Mar 16, 2023

Super cool that you got the remote system up and running for this. I too would have problems keeping track of which camera was which in the excitement of the moment.

The light looks to have been atrocious @ ISO 25600, so I think you did well to get anything. I was trying to get terns coming out of the water two weeks ago and it was
really hard, even in perfect light. I'l be curious to see if you keep at this. If you do, hopefully you'll get a day with better so you can freeze the wings a bit better.

Joseph Przybyla · Mar 17, 2023

Hi Andreas, pretty neat for the conditions and method you had to use. A very dynamic image. Thank you for sharing.

Kurt Bowman · Mar 17, 2023

Great result based on the conditions and ISO 25600! Looking forward to seeing a shot from a day with good light. Not an easy shot to execute, think you handled it nicely

William Dickson · Mar 17, 2023

I like it Andreas....The motion blur on the wings adds nice movement....Colours are good and a nice POV....Yes, very nice and a good view of this difficult bird to photograph .....Well done.

Will

Andreas Liedmann · Mar 17, 2023

Thanks for your kind comments folks , much appreciated .

@ Dorian and Kurt .... sadly no more options to photograph the KF´s at that location , the site is only open in winter . I was the last visitor .... I really hope I get a new chance in next winter . As I have learned a lot during my four visits . Now that I have a good contact to the owner of the property , I hope I can make more arrangements . Due to the location the light will be always a problem , as when the sun is low the location will not get any sunshine ... only when the sun is higher . So the contrast will be a problem . A bright day with very thin cloud cover would be ideal .... or a day after heavy snow fall when everything is white around the pond . Well I will see next winter .

Cheers Andreas