November 27th, 2015: The Perfect Shot
 

Prize winning photographs, you know, the kind you and I never take, are commonly written off by we chewers of the sour grape, as being in the right place at the right time, in other words, luck. Some is true, but in the other 99.999% the photographer knew at least approximately what they wanted, figured out what had to be done to get it, then put the time and effort to be in the right place at the right time. Even then it's just a chance to try, not a guaranty.

Here's a perfect shot of a Kingfisher hitting his reflection on the water. Lucky wasn't he?

http://cellar.org/2015/perfectshot.jpg
Not luck, dedication and stubbornness befitting a Scot.

More than just finding a Kingfisher and waiting for it to dive. How often will it dive into water so smooth you can see it's refection? Then the light has to be right for a reflection. Being a wild bird you can't get too close so you need a longer lens, which has to be focused on where the bird hits the water. Because Kingfishers dive at up to 25 mph it moves across the field of view in a split second, and you can't pan because you only want the hitting the reflection shot.
Lucky bastard... hand me some of those grapes. ;)

Link

6 years. I guess someone should comment.

Reminds me of the guy who got similar pictures of bats eating bugs just above the water surface. He very carefully set up a studio shot where the bats flight paths were obstructed by branches and stuff, and they had to fly right to the spot where the camera was aimed in order to catch the bug. Took a lot of work to set up the shot but orders of magnitude less time.

Dayum.

pop a pearl onion in its path at the moment of impact and your kebab's all ready for the grill....

:)

....of course if you secretly replace the pond water with marinade, then you'd really have a feast. No IOTD, though

Made me think about the "Tom never has a second cup at home..." commercials, too.