You never forget your first… kingfisher.
Photographing a common kingfisher is no easy task. As a matter of fact, i find taking picture of it to be kind of a mark of “true wildlife photographers”. Something like a badge of honor, I guess. So it is only natural that shooting it myself has been very intriguing for me for quite some time. The pictures above are certainly not the best photos of a kingfisher you can find on the internet. Considering only photographic aspect of them they are not even the best of any wildlife pictures I have ever took. Yet, they became my most precious photographs the very moment I pressed the shutter. Let me elaborate and describe to you all the steps leading to that moment as well as mistakes I made along the way.
1) Learning
Kingfishers are not just beautiful, but also small, fast and very skittish birds. Shooting them in the wild without any preparation would be close to miracle. The first step to do so is therefore learning about them and their behaviour. The most important thing you need to know is encompassed in their own name - they prey for fish. So it is only natural that you need to look for them near a body of water where they can hunt for them. The second thing you need to know is, that they need steep banks where they can dig up their nests. Good news is, that they live in Czechia all year around. And one more thing: they really like perching on branches hanging above the water surface, from which they can dive in to catch the fish. However, learning these basic things is only the beginning.
2) Searching for the location
Now it is time to bring the theory into practice. I searched the internet for a bit and found a possible location: the lake of Cep. Or Cep I. to be precise. It is former sand quarry which was flooded when the mining was terminated (there is also Cep II. nearby, where the mining still goes on). It checks all the important boxes. There are fish and steep sandy banks ideal for kingfisher’s nesting. And also I found an information that kingfishers were seen there, so that was also a hint, I suppose. However, to confirm that I had to take a look myself, so one day I took a hike around the lake. And after about three hours I saw one kingfisher flying fast near the water surface like a jet fighter. Only one but that was enough. So when I knew the kingfisher was present, the hard part was about to start.
3) Picking the right spot and building a hideout
Few days later I went back to pick up the right position to build a hideout and place a branch for my kingfisher to land on. I think I chose quite a good spot partly covered by reeds with my camera facing north (so the light could not come directly against me throughout the day). I also positioned the branch in such a way, that the resulting composition encompassed not just branch and water, but also some green and brown background for additional interest. However, I grossly underestimated my “opponent” while building my own “nest”. I was wrong to assume that disrupting the silhouette of my body by some branches and camouflage net would be enough to confuse him (not by a long shot). When I built the hideout I tried to wait for a kingfisher for couple of hours. And what was my surprise, that it really landed on the branch I prepared for it! It took him just a split second, so I did not manage to take a shot, but it was enough to convince myself, that I was doing it right. Well, not so much.
4) Waiting for the opportunity
Encouraged by my previous experience I decided to come back the very next day before the sunrise. I unpacked my gear, poured myself a cup of hot tea from my flask and the main part started - the waiting. I pre-focused at the branch and as the light level slowly raised with the Sun going higher on the sky, I only adjusted the exposure by pushing the shutter speed to its limits while maintaining aperture at about f/9 so I could be reasonably sure, that the whole bird will be in focus when the time comes. I also used a cable shutter release which I held the whole time no matter what, so I would not miss my chance. I had been sitting there for about two and half hours and during that time, I saw the kingfisher only once flying low above the water with its high-pitched whistle.
And then the magic happened! Well, not exactly magic, but certainly two to three magical seconds when the kingfisher landed on my branch in front of me! I just pressed the shutter release and hoped for the best. There was no time for anything else… After that I spent another hour and half waiting, but my little friend did not bother to return. Now when I think about it, the whole thing might seem like long awaited sexual encounter with unnaturally high expectation. So much work for such a short moment! Luckily, it was so much more rewarding in a long term, I reckon.
If nothing else, I learned that my attempt to cover my presence was so inadequate! When I looked at the pictures later at home, it was clear to me, that the bird noticed me almost right away when he landed on the branch (you might see it too, if you look at the pictures I chose from the burst as a sequence). After a quick risk assessment it decided, that the nice branch is not worth it and hurtled away. If I did better job at hiding myself, I could have much better opportunity to take nicer and more interesting pictures.
My second big mistake was a very poor framing. Even though I knew how small a kingfisher is, I set my lens on its lowest focal length of 200 mm. I was not sure where exactly could the bird land, so assumed I would just crop the image later. Were I more decisive and zoomed in all the way on the end of the branch, I could have almost perfect 42 MP high resolution pictures instead of about 14 MP after crop…
Well, what can I say. Mistakes were made, but nobody is perfect during their first time, I guess.
