Photo Story: White-throated Kingfisher on a Light Pole

The White-throated Kingfisher is located in the Middle East, India, and throughout Southern Asia. This Kingfisher was photographed in Hyderabad, India.

White-throated Kingfisher on a Light Pole

The White-throated Kingfisher is a beautiful bird with a blue back, tail, and wings. It has a chestnut belly and sides, with a white throat.

I saw this bird several times during my trip to Hyderabad. It likes to perch up high on light poles, buildings and tall trees. He usually didn’t stay long on a perch especially when I raised my camera to photograph him.

On this occasion, he was very patient and allowed me to take pictures for several minutes. The 2X crop factor of the Olympus OM-D E-M1 was useful as the Kingfisher stayed pretty far away. With the Panasonic Lumix 100-300mm F/4.0-5.6 Lens and a 2X crop factor, I get an effective focal length of 600mm.

When photographing birds at home, I use the Canon 500mm f/4 lens with a Canon 5d Mark III. While the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and Panasonic 100-300mm lens doesn’t have the same quality and sharpness as the high end Canon gear, it performed pretty well. It was also a lot lighter and convenient to travel half way across the world. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have made it under the 8 kg carry on weight limit for Air India domestic flights with the Canon equipment.

White-throated Kingfisher Photo Details

Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M1
Lens: Panasonic Lumix 100-300mm f4.0-5.6
Focal Length: 300mm (600mm full frame equivalent)
ISO: 320
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 of a second
Exposure Compensation: +7/10
Lighting: Bright, Sunny Morning

Bird Photography Processing

Cropped the photo in Lightroom 5.
Applied the Detail Extractor Filter in Color Efex Pro 4.
Added contrast and pop to the photo by using the Fur and Feathers II filter in Topaz Clarity.

Used the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools to clean up the marks on the street lamp.
Selectively removed noise from the photo using Topaz DeNoise.
Selectively sharpened the photo using the Unsharp Mask Filter in Photoshop CC 2014.

Written by Martin Belan

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