The magical light of late afternoon, almost sunset, at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge illuminates (in every sense of the word) this female Belted Kingfisher. This is the bird. This is the nature of the bird. This is the truth of the bird. This is whole bird and nothing but the bird. And, it is, I think, a beautiful image, just as an image.

Kingfishers at Merritt are not easy. They do not sit. And indeed this lady posed only long enough for one burst of 6 or 7 shots before she was away down the channel and gone from sight. The only way I got this was because she was sitting right across the channel from the tour road. I glided up in the car, paused in line with her, cranked the Canon SX40HS zoom out to full optical, switched on the 2x digital tel-extender, and shot a burst at 1680mm equivalent, hand held, out the open passenger window of the car. I did not even dare to shut the car off, so most of the shots are spoiled by vibration. I got two or three sharp shots though. This is my favorite.

I have to say (though I have probably said it before) that a shot like this with a Point and Shoot Camera should be impossible. A hand held shot at 1680mm equivalent should be impossible with any camera. I am simply amazed the the Canon SX40HS pulls it off. This image will not stand up to pixel-peeping (a full resolution, one image pixel to one screen pixel, will show processing artifacts aplenty), but at normal viewing or printing resolutions and sizes it looks, to my eye, very good. I am happy to show it off.

Canon SX40HS as above at 1680mm equivalent field of view, f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 250. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.

Lightly processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.