Photographer finally takes perfect shot of kingfisher after 720,000 attempts

Photographer finally takes perfect shot of kingfisher after 720,000 attempts



Alan McFadyen, who has been an avid wildlife photographer since 2009, just captured a photo that he has spent 6 years trying to get. By his count, it took him 4,200 hours and 720,000 photos to get a perfect shot of a kingfisher diving straight into the water without a single splash.

“The photo I was going for of the perfect dive, flawlessly straight, with no splash required not only me to be in the right place and get a very lucky shot but also for the bird itself to get it perfect,” McFadyen told The Herald Scotland.

“I would often go and take 600 pictures in a session and not a single one of them be any good. But now I look back on the thousands and thousands of photos I have taken to get this one image, it makes me realise just how much work I have done to get it.”

McFadyen, who also runs a wildlife photography hide business, was inspired to love nature and wildlife by his grandfather. “I remember my grandfather taking me to see the kingfisher nest and I just remember being completely blown away by how magnificent the birds are. So when I took up photography I returned to this same spot to photograph the kingfishers.”

Photographer finally takes perfect shot of kingfisher after 720,000 attempts
It took Alan McFadyen 6 years, 4,200 hours and 720,000 photos to get this shot: © Alan McFadyen

“The photo I was going for of the perfect dive, flawlessly straight, with no splash required not only me to be in the right place and get a very lucky shot but also for the bird itself to get it perfect”

perfect kingfisher dive photo wildlife photography alan mcfayden 33
“I would often go and take 600 pictures in a session and not a single one of them be any good” – Photo © Alan McFayden
perfect kingfisher dive photo wildlife photography alan mcfayden 34
“I never really stopped to think about how long it was taking along the way as I enjoyed doing it but now I look back on it I’m really proud of the picture and the work I put in” – Photo © Alan McFayden
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Photo © Alan McFayden

“I remember my grandfather taking me to see the kingfisher nest and I just remember being completely blown away by how magnificent the birds are”

perfect kingfisher dive photo wildlife photography alan mcfayden 35
Photo © Alan McFayden

“I’m sure my grandfather would have loved it, I just wish he could have seen it. All of my family contacted me when they saw it and said he would have been so proud of it”

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Photo © Alan McFayden
perfect kingfisher dive photo wildlife photography alan mcfayden 10
Photo © Alan McFayden

This article was first published by Boredpanda.com on 24 Nov 2015.

 

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