Flicker and Kingfisher in a dive

[james thiel]

Here are a couple of shots I took last night at my favorite park in the Seattle area. The flicker was in nice golden light. The Kingfisher dove off the rail and I was able to get four shots of him but he never hit the water. At the last second he came out of his dive and flew off. The Kingfisher picture was cropped quite a bit. These were shot with the D2X and Sigma 500 4.5 lens .

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[mike mac]

Awesome shots of two of the birds on my top ten list to add to my portfolio

 

[Louis Champan]

Super shots Jim. I can't seem to arrange my visits to Juanita at the same time as the KingFisher that hangs out there does.

 

[hillrg]

Holy smokes Jim! Very impressive. Those are both tough birds to shoot. Was the halo in the original Flicker image?

 

[JayR]

Wow. These are great. My last 2 visits to Juanita have been pretty unproductive. Had to shoot boats as I did not see any birds.

I did see a bald eagle perched on the pole in the middle of the lake but with my 70-200mm lens, he was just a speck in the frame. More like a bug

Are there any good times to spot birds at Juanita? Or is it just pure luck (which I don't seem to have much of)?

 

[Flew]

Excellent captures Jim. One of the best of each species that I've seen here or anywhere. :wink:

 

[Greg]

The flicker shot is just awesome. Great view of him doing what is natural and not just sitting. good grab.

 

[james thiel]

Thanks all for the kind words. Rory I am sure I over sharpened and when I get home I will check it out. I really need to get a better handle on this sharpening thing. Any tips would be much appreciated.

 

[drueter]

Fantastic shots, Jim! Nice capture of natural actions on both birds.

 

[hillrg]

Thanks all for the kind words. Rory I am sure I over sharpened and when I get home I will check it out. I really need to get a better handle on this sharpening thing. Any tips would be much appreciated.

He he. I know what you mean! Ron Reznick is the master in my book, but Mike is also darn good - maybe he can chime in. You might try playing with selective sharpening using layers. If you want to know more I can put together an explanationof how I do it.

 

[saturnine]

That second photo looks like he's acting very shy and giving a timid "hello" wave with his right wing :lol:

 

[james thiel]

Yeah it does Grace or maybe even a Matador getting ready for a bull fight.

 

[Nikam]

That is one fantastic flicker shot, Jim. Love the lighting!

 

[bfjr]

2nd shot is right on WTG!!!

 

[Keith]

Luv the flicker shot, very well done. Rory must have a eagle eye, took me a bit to figure out what you were talking about LOL, not that bad at all. Be happy with the shot, you did great!