As I’m prone to do, today I’m posting a single older image (2 versions of the same image) after slaving away on a long, labor intensive post the day before. I’m still tuckered after processing and writing about 12 photos in yesterday’s post.
1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
This is a photo from several years ago that I haven’t posted before of a male Belted Kingfisher at one of our local ponds. I caught him preening his feathers while taking a brief break from fishing. During his preening session I couldn’t see his face or eye in most of my photos but here he turned his head by reaching back, which remedied the situation.
This is another one of those photos where I think the background really adds to the image. Personally, I love it.
In order to avoid at least one highly annoying branch in the background, I’ve cropped this version of the image a little tighter on the bird than I normally would.
A horizontal composition and looser crop of the same photo reveals some of the branches I was trying to avoid. In this version the kingfisher has more room to ‘breathe’ but I sure don’t like those branches at upper right. Yes, I know, I could easily have cloned them out but I see a crop that may be a little tight on the bird as the lesser of two evils.
Your mileage may vary.
Ron
I do so like belted kingfisher images and this one, (the cropped version) is a treat. I am also glad to know that there is a simple explanation for what often has seemed like your superhuman powers of organization.
Granny Pat, with the many, many thousands of images I’ve posted over 13 years of blogging (maybe 14-16 thousand?), there’s simply no way I could remember which ones I’ve posted off the top of my head. Not a chance. Thankfully, WordPress provides me a way.
I don’t mind older images, I imagine you have some nice ones that have not pasted the muster in your minds eye. Maybe due to my big monitor size, I like the second despite the branches. It’s hard to crop things out. My photos from Sunday of the pelicans always had too many pelicans out of focus I did not like in my images. I also had a massive problem with soft focus in the cloudy evening light. It was hard to crop soft focus parts of pelicans out of my images. In the pelican in flight there is the tip top of a pelican head in the left hand bottom corner, I was hoping it would look like a rock but with an eye.
April, I have problems with soft focus in low light too.
I always enjoy pictures of kingfishers. Thanks, Ron. And I have to say that you have an amazing memory or database or both. Keeping track of hundreds… thousands… of photos and whether you have posted them before is an amazing feat by itself.
Ellen, all I have to do is look up the file numbers in my WordPress image library to see if I’ve posted them before. It certainly isn’t my memory…
Your preference is mine, though I like both of them.
Good, Thanks, EC.
Love these birds. In fact, there is something about all the birds that rely on water and have disproportionally large beaks that I find both fascinating and whimsical. The flight style and voice of the Kingfisher make them all the more so.
Agree with your assessment of the annoying branch in the upper right of that uncropped photo. Nevertheless, I enjoy both versions.
“Nevertheless, I enjoy both versions.”
Actually, so do I – even though those branches at upper right bug me in the horizontal version. Thanks, Michael
I so enjoyed the “mileage” you got in the cropped version because of
the wonderful emphasis it gives to the textures in the roughed-up
feathers all over the bird’s body– I really admire this capture !
Good. Thanks, Kris.
I like the crop. I think it works because of then angle of his head and beak. It feels like it has enough room.
Brett, I agree that the head and bill angle help with the tight crop.
I used to like tight crops better than I do now.
The crop works for me and certainly is a lot less work for you! 😉 VERY nice capture of a challenging bird. 🙂
Thanks, Judy. Challenging indeed.