Dave Newman is an amateur wildlife and pet photographer based in Lincolnshire in the UK.
He submitted this fantastic photo to Digital Camera World magazine, responding to shoutouts for its regular 'Rate My Photo' page.
The image gets a full analysis, highlighting the aspects that excel, and ones that could be improved upon.
Before deconstructing Dave's photo, let's go behind the scenes of the shot…
"In this image, I captured a kingfisher emerging from the water with a freshly caught fish, freezing a split second of precision and power," Dave recalls.
"I positioned myself near a known hunting perch. I tracked the bird from the dive, into the water and then back out, and used a fast shutter speed to freeze motion.
"The goal was to reveal the bird’s hunting skill, timing and the dramatic beauty of its everyday survival instincts. This is my best kingfisher capture to date."
Captured on a Sony A9 with a Sony FE 400mm GM f/2.8 OSS. Settings: 1/8,000 sec at f/2.8, ISO 800, -0.3 exposure compensation.
See more of Dave's shots on his Instagram: @daves_spherical_photography
Expert analysis of 'Kingfisher' by Dave Newman
Overall impact
It’s a tremendous shot that has bags of impact. Having the kingfisher coming straight back out of the water like a missile, and with a fish in its beak, makes this perfectly timed capture.
Getting this shot was all down to Dave’s fieldcraft in knowing where the bird was likely to perch and dive from, and where it would emerge, then using his technical skill to capture the action at the perfect moment.
Eye contact
The slight tilt of the head trades symmetry for a more engaging photo. Being able to see the bird’s eye gives the image more of a connection; a symmetrical bird may not have made as good a shot.
Frozen water and spray
The fast shutter speed of 1/8,000 sec means every droplet of water is frozen, giving the splash an interesting shape. The trade-off for that shutter speed is that the ISO had to be increased to 800, but the resulting noise was dealt with in software.
Beautiful background
The wide-open aperture of f/2.8 means the background is a series of pastel coloured bands, with lovely muted colours, allowing full focus on the bird.
Depth of field
The advantage of f/2.8 is the background and keeping the ISO to 800 with that fast shutter speed. The disadvantage is that there is little depth of field.
The focus point seems to be the head and neck area, which is sharp, but some feathers are out of focus, as are the feet and tail.
Would a narrower aperture have achieved more depth of field? Possibly, but it would have impacted either the shutter speed or the ISO.
Vertical composition
Dave has already cropped this image to get closer to the bird, but another option may have been to crop it into a vertical orientation to emphasise the upwards movement.
He could have tried to capture it vertically, but that would run the risk of not getting it in the frame when it was moving quickly, so shooting in landscape orientation was probably the better choice.
Read more from Digital Camera magazine
This content appeared in issue 308 (June 2026) of Digital Camera magazine.
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