While chasing dragons at my little local pond the other day, I head the unmistakable chatter, clatter, of a Kingfisher, looked up, and this fellow landed on the little ornamental bridge straight across the pond from me. In my opinion no bird has more personality…birdality?…than a Kingfisher. They are so full of themselves! I mean, look at this guy. Is that kingfisherality or what?

These were not easy photographs, for the camera. It was darkish (ISO 500 dark) and the bird was far enough away so I had to switch on the digital tel-converter. The dtc does wonders with close subjects, as an extension of the macro reach of the zoom, but it is less successful at distance. While the image looks good at this size, and right up to as large as it would take to fill all but the largest computer monitors, it breaks down when viewed at pixel peeping levels. More detail is suggested, by very clever in-camera processing, than is actually there.

Still, for grab shots from across a pond, they are not bad. And as portraits of kingfisherality, they are pretty satisfying.

Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 400 and 500. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.