This Shot of a Diving Kingfisher Was 6 Years and 720K Photos in the Making

[sl8]

From https://petapixel.com/2015/11/25/this-shot-of-a-diving-kingfisher-was-6-years-and-720k-photos-in-the-making/ :

This Shot of a Diving Kingfisher Was 6 Years and 720K Photos in the Making
NOV 25, 2015 MICHAEL ZHANG

Nailing the perfect shot sometimes requires a lot of patience. Scottish photographer Alan McFadyen would know: he spent an estimated 6 years, 4,200 hours, and 720,000 exposures trying to nail the perfect symmetrical shot of a kingfisher diving into its reflection.

McFadyen spent most of his career as a fisherman before a nasty back injury forced him to pick up a camera instead. He has been doing wildlife photography since 2009.

Growing up, McFadyen used to visit a lake with his late grandfather to watch a kingfisher nesting spot. After taking up photography, McFadyen decided to honor his grandfather by capturing the perfect photo of a kingfisher.

...

Finally, last month, everything came together. A bird did a perfect dive, and McFadyen finally managed to capture a shot in which the tip of the kingfisher’s beak is touching the surface of the lake:

...

[cyclonefence]

1. WOW. Just WOW.

[irisblue]

2. What Cyclone said..

[Permanut]

3. I second that Wow, and add an "awesome!" nt

[Fla Dem]

4. THAT'S what I call perseverance! A beautiful picture.

[donotpissoffacow]

5. Didn't someone say greatness

was keeping at it until you got it right? He got it right.

[warmfeet]

6. Awesome shot.

[RainCaster]

7. Beautiful shot!

I shoot kingfishers quite often and they never look like that. Here in the US we have Ringed Kingfishers, and this is a Spotted Kingfisher.

[geardaddy]

9. Why do you shoot the poor birds?

[RainCaster]

14. Because they eat my koi

Well they try to anyhow, and they leave holes in my fish that take a year to heal. Sometimes the infection kills them instead.

[Queen of the Iceni]

11. The picture is of a common kingfisher or what is known in the UK as just a kingfisher.

There are no spotted kingfishers in Scotland.

I was trying to take a picture of a (common) kingfisher once by a brook England, but there was too much trash on the bank.

[geardaddy]

8. That is COOL!

[spike jones]

10. Perfect?

The shot is a little off center, left to right, and a perfect shot would have the bird and reflection images in full top to bottom.

[Pepsidog]

12. Wow, the patience of a Saint. Congrats

[bluestarone]

13. all i can say is

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (hope it's right had to ck spelling numerous times lol)