{"id":85997,"date":"2020-06-06T06:11:18","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T12:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=85997"},"modified":"2020-06-06T06:16:05","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T12:16:05","slug":"belted-kingfisher-diving-on-a-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/06\/belted-kingfisher-diving-on-a-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Belted Kingfisher Diving On A Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m finally getting better at photographing diving kingfishers. My next goal is to learn how to convince them to dive from less cluttered fishing perches.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Just over a week ago this male Belted Kingfisher gave me several chances to photograph him diving for fish. This busy background was a problem for two reasons – it’s visually distracting and unattractive and it’s so close to the bird that my active focus point was likely to lock onto the branches instead of the bird when he took off after a fish.<\/p>\n

But all I can do is try so that’s what I did.<\/p>\n

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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

He took off in exactly the same direction and angle he’d been looking which is a tool I used to help me keep him in focus in flight. Typically, if I’m very<\/em> lucky, I’ll get a single sharp shot after they take off.<\/p>\n

But this time…<\/p>\n

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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I managed to get two where he was sharp. The next shot in the burst included part of a blurry kingfisher and some impressively sharp branches.<\/p>\n

I attempted kingfisher diving shots for years before I got the first one I liked where the bird was sharp so I’m making progress. Now my biggest challenge is keeping them in frame when they launch because they do it so incredibly quickly.<\/p>\n

I simply don’t need any more clipped or cut off kingfishers.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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PS – At the last minute I decided to show you how this male kingfisher continued to try to frustrate me with his choice of perches. But this time I fooled him.<\/em><\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

On that same morning he tantalized me by perching close to me on this branch. But there were problems while he was perched here too, including:<\/em><\/p>\n