{"id":144177,"date":"2023-10-03T06:22:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T12:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=144177"},"modified":"2023-10-03T06:41:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T12:41:36","slug":"belted-kingfisher-up-close-and-preening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/03\/belted-kingfisher-up-close-and-preening\/","title":{"rendered":"Belted Kingfisher, Up Close And Preening"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I&#8217;m prone to do, today I&#8217;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&#8217;m still tuckered after processing and writing about 12 photos in yesterday&#8217;s post.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"144178\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/03\/belted-kingfisher-up-close-and-preening\/belted-kingfisher-3994-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"749,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;6.3&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 7D Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1590735261&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;700&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0003125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"belted kingfisher 3994 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-144178 size-full\" title=\"belted-kingfisher-3994-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"749\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-ron-dudley.jpg 749w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-ron-dudley-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-ron-dudley-125x150.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 749px) 100vw, 749px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>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<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This is a photo from several years ago that I haven&#8217;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&#8217;t see his face or eye in most of my photos but here he turned his head by reaching back, which remedied the situation.<\/p>\n<p>This is another one of those photos where I think the background really adds to the image. Personally, I love it.<\/p>\n<p>In order to avoid at least one highly annoying branch in the background, I&#8217;ve cropped this version of the image a little tighter on the bird than I normally would.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"144206\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/03\/belted-kingfisher-up-close-and-preening\/belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;6.3&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 7D Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1590735261&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;700&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0003125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"belted kingfisher 3994 horizontal b ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-144206 size-full\" title=\"belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>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 &#8216;breathe&#8217; but I sure don&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n<p>Ron<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweaking an image to get a background I like using methods I&#8217;m comfortable with. (2 versions of the same photo)<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/03\/belted-kingfisher-up-close-and-preening\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2853,6,334,395],"tags":[916,3624,2330,255,311],"class_list":["post-144177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-belted-kingfishers","category-bird-photography-methods","category-birds","category-miscellaneous","tag-composition","tag-male-belted-kingfisher","tag-megaceryle-alcyon","tag-preening","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/belted-kingfisher-3994-horizontal-b-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-Bvr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144177"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144211,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144177\/revisions\/144211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}