Feeding "King's class"

[Bhargava Srivari]

Had this title in my mind for a long time now, but never had the imae to go with it! Even though the image here is not very satisfying, couldn't resist using it..

A common kingfisher with a fish in its beak, shot at Karanji lake in mysore. Had seen three of these birds picking upfishes from the pond at ease, but each time, I would only marvel at their skill with the camera viewfinder no where close to my eye:)

canon 60D, canon 100-400 L IS
f5.6, 1/1250sec, EV +1.7, ISO 500, 400mm, evaluative mtering

Kept the f value at f5.6 hoping that I will at some point of time suddenly try a KF flight shot and thus the aperture will gve me a higher shutter speed!

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice compo.The colours of the bird stand out agst the dab Bg. Wish this was closer.
TFS
Roopak

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Bhargava,
Who said the image is not satisfactory? The wide frame with the off-centred bird looks appealing to me. Such compositions once in a while make for images different from the usual close-up bird shots :). The catch is a big plus. Is it a tadpole (seems to have legs)? Increasing the brightness a bit might enhance the image.
One strange thing- The part of the BG visible from between the bird's mandibles appears very much brighter than the rest of the BG. Also there is a bit more brightness along the bird's edges. Any special editing done?

TFS.

[Bhargava Srivari]

Thanks Abhishek...I am sorry to have forgotten mentioning- I reduced the exposure of the BG (excepting the bird) by a stop....other than that not much PP done.

I believe it is a fish, but not sure. The action happened somquickly..i didnt realise anything!

[Mrudul Godbole]

The eye contact and the perch is nice. The catch (I think it is a fish) is a bonus. The selective exposure is looking a bit unnatural with the out line and the small white patch in the beak. Thanks for sharing.