{"id":1137,"date":"2009-12-03T05:14:34","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T10:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/potd.lightshedder.com\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2009-12-03T05:14:34","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T10:14:34","slug":"1232009-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/p4td_\/?p=1137","title":{"rendered":"12\/3\/2009"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Green Kingfisher<\/p><\/div>\n

The Green Kingfisher is, most days, my most favorite bird. It is so\u00a0improbable. Not much bigger than a sparrow, with that massive beak, and that intense green. The rust breast on the male just adds to the beauty of the bird.<\/p>\n

It has not been an easy bird for me to photograph. They only live right down along the Mexican border, and I only get down that way once, or twice at most, a year. \u00a0They are common there, meaning that they\u00a0occur at least in small numbers where there is appropriate habitat, and are regularly seen…but seeing one and getting close enough for a good shot are two different things.<\/p>\n

This is a small bird. Worse, the feature structure, typical of a diving bird, is very fine (waterproof tight) so that getting real detail means you have to be very, very close and have very, very good light.<\/p>\n

All of which is to say that this is one of my best shots of a male Green Kingfisher to date. I like the greens. I like the pose. I would have liked, even using what amounts to a 1600mm lens, to have been closer.<\/p>\n

Zeiss PhotoScope 85FL at 40x (as above, about equivalent in field of view to a 1600mm lens on a full frame DSLR). 1\/80th sec. @ ISO 100. Metered at about f5.6.<\/p>\n

In Lightroom, I moved the Blackpoint considerably right, added Clarity and Vibrance (a little), and used the Sharpen Landscapes preset.<\/p>\n

From Zeiss PhotoScope 85FL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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