Pied Kingfisher, Dark Background

Pied Kingfisher, Dark Background

The always beautiful and impressive Pied Kingfisher, this time in mid-air with the background being dark instead of some boring sky. Really shows the magnificence of this bird!

What do I like about this photo? The dynamic pose, standing in mid-air. I used a fast shutter speed (1/2500 of a second) to freeze the action, so the Kingfisher is sharp even though it's moving very rapidly. I used an open aperture (f/6.3 - the most open my lens supports at the focal length of 400mm that I used) to create a shallow depth of field, so the Kingfisher is in focus but the background is blurred out. All in all there's very good separation of the subject in the frame. The background is dark, making the Kingfisher shine, and interesting enough with hues of green and brown, but not distracting.

What would I want to improve? I would have liked to be closer to be able to get more details on the Kingfisher. A more frontal angle might also have helped for a more dynamic pose.