Kingfisher

[Stinky]

Finally got close to photographing one of these guys. Took the my son and his friends to the Trenton Marsh on an unexpected trip and this guy was sitting right in the area near where we parked. Not sure how happy I am with the photo but glad to have at least captured the bird in a good area with good light. They don't sit still. Happy New Year to all!!

[Shadowman]

What lens are you using? You need more reach.

[Stinky]

This is something that I have been dealing with. It is a 80-400 mm with the 1.5x.crop factor on. To me it seems that this shot should be better. The bird is about 50-75 yards away. Any comments would be appreciated.

[Manfred M]

I can't see the metadata associated with the shot, but to be a bit trite; you're not close enough nor is the camera being held steadily enough for the selected shutter speed.

I assume you were hand-holding; and frankly actually keeping a small subject in frame at 400mm (600mm FF equivilent at 1.5 crop) is going to be tough enough. You will be bobbing around and at that focal length even that small amount of motion is going to be magnified. Crank up your ISO and shutter speed.

[Shadowman]

This is something that I have been dealing with. It is a 80-400 mm with the 1.5x.crop factor on. To me it seems that this shot should be better. The bird is about 50-75 yards away. Any comments would be appreciated.

Steve,

+1 to Manfred's comments, get closer and if hand holding work on your stability. A monopod would give you a bit more stability, although you still have to worry about side to side sway. Also, use VR even if using the monopod. How much of the bird was visible within your focus indicator? You want an object large enough to fit within the brackets.

[Stinky]

John/Manfred

Thanks for the great comments. I was hand holding as I knew I would not have enough time to get to the monopod that I had in the car. My coworker, who does a lot of photography keeps telling me that my subjects are too far away. Now I believe him (lol).

The EXIF data is a follows: f/6.3, SS 1/2500, ISO 1600 at 400 mm with 1.5x crop on.

Thanks again

[Manfred M]

Steve - I'm not a bird photographer, so I had to go back through my archives. This bird is probably around the same size as a kingfisher.

Data: 1.5 crop factor (Nikon D90), 80-400mm lens at 400mm focal length. ISO 800, f/11 1/1000 sec at 5.3m / 17ft., slight crop in the final image



You are WAY too far away.

[Ken MT]

I agree, they don't sit still, and either the background is poor, or they are on the other side of a stream. However I was pretty happy with this one, but I would have liked to be closer.
Exif states it was 200 mm, actually was 800mm (Canon 100-400 with 2x converter)

[Benjy]

Steve,Manfredd is correct,you should try getting closer,here is one I caught a while back after months of trying,they usually perch on same branch here so I had branches etc. built up in front of me about 4 metres from perch then waited,waited,waited....