Birds Kingfisher getting her tail up ♀ juvenile

[Paul stuart]

• ILCE-1
• 500mm F5.6 DG DN OS | Sports 024
• 500.0 mm
• ƒ/5.6
• 1/2500 sec
• ISO 1000

 

[Richard A]

Wow. Very nice photo. Well done.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Nice light Paul. Cool shot

 

[Shooter41]

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Dear Paul Stuart...I notice that you shot this image at 1/2500 second. That explains the amazing clarity of focus you achieved of this magnificent bird and even stopped the slight blur of the bird breathing. You must have been shooting at F2.8 to get the totally blurred background which compliments the outstanding clarity of your subject. You do realize that your are inspiring all the other Sony shooters to get out and take more images and try to improve our work, right? Nice work! Shooter41

 

[Paul stuart]

honestly no ,I was at 5.6 at 500mm the background is the pond so no f2.8 required to be honest had it been a touch closer i would of shot f8 ideally ,but f2.8 does have advantages ie dawn and dusk ask me when its owl season again in the uk f2.8 would be most handy on a winters day ,S/S 2500 is pretty much a middle of the road setting niether one or the other. The kingfisher landed next to me a fishing rod length away i was busy swapping out battery and formatting card and their she sat not in clear view and had like a pink flower in front of her ,so i kept my camera down and waited then she dived in front me no more than 8-9 ft like the minimum focus distance of my lens ,i still held nerve in hindsight i should of tracked and tried a shot of her emerging but in the blinking of a eye she flew on to twig even closer, i then gained composure slowly pulled up my camera to my eye ,any chance of shot would of been the best yet ,but just as she saw me lift the camera to my eye she was gone no shot i thought ,but luckily she flew on to post branch in the pond for me to get this shot which happens to be around 30ft away i know my settings are skewed i had no time to adjust he only stayed on the perch for 1 second 15-20shots on my A1 before she flew away again .Thing is kingfishers are inquizative little birds and always want to check you out .

any long lens will compress the background sometimes it helps othertimes it hinders ,it is the reason why canon can still sell lenses at 800mm f11 and 800mm f9 ,for close small birds a narrow aperture can help ,ask anyone who shoots close up insect work with macro or telephotos when you want your subject totally in focus at 500mm f2.8 on the kingfisher its feet would be totally blured out ,and not appealing dof at this range with a 500mm f2.8 would be 6mm

 

[Tinopener]

View attachment 67064

Kingfisher on my to shoot list great shot ,,,Gary

 

[Tim Mayo]

Beautiful shot Paul and a unique pose! I spotted one a couple of weeks ago, if I only had my camera with me! Are you still enjoying the Sigma?

 

[Paul stuart]

Beautiful shot Paul and a unique pose! I spotted one a couple of weeks ago, if I only had my camera with me! Are you still enjoying the Sigma?

yes love it but i still keep wishing for sony to drop restrictions ,sometimes i want to be able to add a t/c more so than the extra frames that are restricted ,a very light lens lens and the 200-600 stays at home now also super sharp in all conditions makes a great lens for airshows and mammals ,although the 300mm f2.8 keeps appearing in the back of my mind but not sure i need a 300mm with a 2x to replace the 600mm f/l ,still i wait and see how much pressure canon can leverage on sony once they open their mount completely ,only a matter of time.

 

[Tim Mayo]

yes love it but i still keep wishing for sony to drop restrictions ,sometimes i want to be able to add a t/c more so than the extra frames that are restricted ,a very light lens lens and the 200-600 stays at home now also super sharp in all conditions makes a great lens for airshows and mammals ,although the 300mm f2.8 keeps appearing in the back of my mind but not sure i need a 300mm with a 2x to replace the 600mm f/l ,still i wait and see how much pressure canon can leverage on sony once they open their mount completely ,only a matter of time.

My 200-600 stays at home as well these days, that's when I manage to get out! I'm tempted to sell it but if I ever drag my arse to the Mach Loop again then it would be useful to have the zoom especially for the Cads where 500mm would be too much when they are passing through. I was considering the 300m F2.8 as well until the Sigma came along. Maybe I'll pick one up at some point but for now I have no real need for it.

 

[Paul stuart]

My thoughts also if i owned a A9iii then i would be tempted for the 300mm f2.8 and sell the sigma for the sony ,and i bet if i did that sony the next week would drop restrictions for 3rd party