The ice bird
Kingfisher in german is called “Eisvögel” or “Ice bird”. I had been dreaming of photographing these elusive beauties for quite some time. So when my photography buddy Alex (V-light photography [link]) called me up to say she has found one inhabiting the nearby river in Vienna, I was up in arms , determined to get that shot no matter what. January 2025 was a rough time for me - I had been experiencing a very intense MS attack that had affected my balance and my muscle strength so I had to walk with a cane. Holding a camera in my hand was challenging because of muscle weakness so I hadn’t been able to do photography for the time being, but here I was determined to bring home the shot. I had a plan of how to do it, too. I would set up a tripod at the bridge overlooking the kingfisher’s favorite flight paths so I don’t have to hold my camera with the heavy 100-400mm lens that I needed to capture the bird with and wait in hope for the magic to happen.
We made our setup and waited patiently.
And then like a miracle she appeared. Bingo.
Kingfisher
Sony A7RV, 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS Lens, 400mm 1/500s F5.6 ISO 3200
Favourite branch
Sony A7RV, 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS Lens, 400mm 1/2000s F8 ISO 20000
I made a bit of a mistake with this particular shot as you can see from the settings listed. There was obviously no need for such a fast shutter speed that in cloudy conditions resulted in a super high ISO. The thing is, I selected my settings for the sharp photo of the bird in flight and didn’t remember to change them back when it perched on the branch. I am obviously still figuring out bird photography, but thankfully running the raw file through DxO pure raw saved the shot. I can absolutely recommend this software for noisy pictures!
Elisabeth
Sony A7RV, 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS Lens, 400mm 1/640s F5.6 ISO 640
You can see by the light spot on the bird’s beak that it’s a female, I have named her Elisabeth. We have been to this place with Alex several times and Elisabeth was always there, flying over her favorite branches. After a while I have noticed that she was favoring this branch in particular and I managed to silently sneak up on her to take this shot with my camera tied to my wrist so that I don’t drop it.
Berries
Sony A7RV, 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS Lens, 400mm 1/1000s F5.6 ISO 2500
To say that I was happy would be an understatement. Elisabeth just made my January.
Queen
Sony A7RV, 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS Lens, 400mm 1/1000s F5.6 ISO 2500
Brooding
Sony A7RV, 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS Lens, 400mm 1/1000s F5.6 ISO 800
There were always a couple of Gray Herons in the pond. This one did not look happy.
Now that I got the perfect photos of a perched kingfisher my new goal is get a photo of it in flight and maybe, if I get insanely lucky, a photo of kingfisher diving for a fish (a girl can dream, you know :)).
