King fisher

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

On my first photo outing in several months, I found this king fisher perch over water. I was on a bridge, but there was no traffic so I could not pass the opportunity. Binging somewhat rusty I started shooting with my lens still at 100mm but quickly shifted to 400mm. I got several shots before in dove down behind a bush and I could not see it.

Specific Feedback

Considering I took this photo from my car and could not shut the motor off as I was on a bridge, how is the sharpness? Is the bird placed OK in the image?

Technical Details

Canon R7 RF100-400mm @ 400mm
1/800 F-9 ISO 2500


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Most Kingfishers are very hard to approach, so you did well using your car as a blind. The pose is good. It does look just a touch soft, so it’s possible that your shutter wasn’t fast enough for the vibrations

Glad to see you posting, John. I like the composition and the background. As Mark noted, the bird appears just a bit soft, but it’s hard to tell with the small size you posted this at. You must have used the old NPN.1 early days sizing. Colors and exposure of the kingfisher are excellent and I love those out of focus early leaves on the left. A small foam rubber pillow on the window can make a pretty fair vibration absorber, though you might want to attach a leash so you can retrieve it if it goes awol.

A lovely opportunity and very pleasing BG and composition! I’d love to see it posted bigger. I would burn down the bright spot in the UR but everything else looks fine at this size.

Great to see you posting, John. KF’s are almost impossible to approach, so this is a fine catch.
It does look a little soft - a higher SS might have overcome the car engine vibrations, but I’m not often successful with that.
I’d suggest darkening the bird a bit, and removing the vertical branch to it’s left, as that is a little distracting.