Kingfishers in flight with fish

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

In this article, some photos of a kingfisher in flight with fish. The photos were taken in June this year. I used a 600mm lens to capture the kingfishers like this.

For all these photos, I used a shutter speed between 1/3200 and 1/4000s, a maximum ISO of 1600 (to avoid too much noise) and an aperture of f/4 for beautiful bokeh and a calm background.

The camera is on a tripod and focused on the spot where the kingfisher will land. You have to be very focused and watch for the moment the kingfisher flies in. I then press the shutter.

I do this with a remote control, otherwise it is not possible to take photos like these. The distance from which I photograph is about six metres. The challenge for me is to capture the moment when the bird is almost touching the branch with its feet, while also having a fish in its beak.

Many flight moments go wrong because the bird is already on the branch or too far away, meaning the photo is not sharp. You cannot take photos like these without enormous patience. Even when you get home with the photos you have taken, you still have to wait and see whether that one moment is among them.

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