ACJC.S
Black-backed Kingfisher
I’m not a hardcore birder, I shoot only when both the opportunity and mood arise simultaneously, both of which does not happen very often.
I remember feeling challenged shooting this bird and as such it was a great experience.
1. Tiny bird, smaller even than the common Kingfisher but way more colourful.
2. This being a Forest Kingfisher, it’s always in the thicket, never in the open. Had to shoot at very low shutter speed hoping to catch it in between twitches just to keep ISO low enough to preserve details. Being as dim as it was, had to also boost up the EV to avoid having to do any shadow recovery.
3. 600mm even on APS-C crop was barely sufficient.
4. Trying to squeeze out as much details as possible. Used normal wireless release via OVF; MUP+EFC; Live-view, none made any consistent and significant difference. This was where I got a little mad at Nikon’s useless implementation of EFC on the D500, even more useless than the auto AF fine-tune feature. What’s the point of putting in features that don’t really work!? EFC in Live-view would have helped but infuriatingly, you can activate EFC in Live-view yet you can’t use EFC in Live-view, get your act together Nikon!
5. Getting the right pose with the beak pointing sideways and preferably upwards for the slightly haughty look plus some catch-light in the eye.
An experience to remember. a most beautiful bird, its red feathers extend down the centre back of its head to the collar in a narrowing ridge looking like its beak with the dark blue patches on each side of this ridge giving it the appearance of having eyes and beak at the back of its head! This is likely a defensive marking. Especially interesting when the Micronesia Kingfisher became extinct in the wild due to introduced brown tree snake sneaking up on it from behind while the bird was totally focused ahead and below as kingfishers normally do.
Shooting very small birds is always challenging as conditions constantly change with the subject constantly on the move while you aim for that perfect pose which can disappear in a twitch.
I toyed with the idea of getting the Sony a99ii with A-mount Tamron 150-600mm G2 after this but gave it up eventually. It’s not feasible to shoot with so many different systems.
Shot on tripod at 1/15s!
Uploaded a much better image (albeit cropped) with my latest post processing workflow.
Black-backed Kingfisher
I’m not a hardcore birder, I shoot only when both the opportunity and mood arise simultaneously, both of which does not happen very often.
I remember feeling challenged shooting this bird and as such it was a great experience.
1. Tiny bird, smaller even than the common Kingfisher but way more colourful.
2. This being a Forest Kingfisher, it’s always in the thicket, never in the open. Had to shoot at very low shutter speed hoping to catch it in between twitches just to keep ISO low enough to preserve details. Being as dim as it was, had to also boost up the EV to avoid having to do any shadow recovery.
3. 600mm even on APS-C crop was barely sufficient.
4. Trying to squeeze out as much details as possible. Used normal wireless release via OVF; MUP+EFC; Live-view, none made any consistent and significant difference. This was where I got a little mad at Nikon’s useless implementation of EFC on the D500, even more useless than the auto AF fine-tune feature. What’s the point of putting in features that don’t really work!? EFC in Live-view would have helped but infuriatingly, you can activate EFC in Live-view yet you can’t use EFC in Live-view, get your act together Nikon!
5. Getting the right pose with the beak pointing sideways and preferably upwards for the slightly haughty look plus some catch-light in the eye.
An experience to remember. a most beautiful bird, its red feathers extend down the centre back of its head to the collar in a narrowing ridge looking like its beak with the dark blue patches on each side of this ridge giving it the appearance of having eyes and beak at the back of its head! This is likely a defensive marking. Especially interesting when the Micronesia Kingfisher became extinct in the wild due to introduced brown tree snake sneaking up on it from behind while the bird was totally focused ahead and below as kingfishers normally do.
Shooting very small birds is always challenging as conditions constantly change with the subject constantly on the move while you aim for that perfect pose which can disappear in a twitch.
I toyed with the idea of getting the Sony a99ii with A-mount Tamron 150-600mm G2 after this but gave it up eventually. It’s not feasible to shoot with so many different systems.
Shot on tripod at 1/15s!
Uploaded a much better image (albeit cropped) with my latest post processing workflow.