Persistent Photographer Captures the Perfect Shot of a Diving Kingfisher Bird After 6 Years of Trying

Scottish photographer Alan McFayden of Scottish Photography Hides captured an incredible shot of a kingfisher in a perfect perpendicular dive just a fraction of a moment before entering into the still, mirrored water. This amazing photo took McFayden over six years and over 720,000 shots to capture. In an interview with the Daily Mail, McFayden spoke about how he went about capturing that tiny moment forever.

There are not many people in the world who have got this shot. Kingfishers dive so fast they are like bullets so taking a good photo requires a lot of luck - and a lot of patience. 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. 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. 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.

Some other wonderful shots of kingfishers that McFayden was also able to capture.

images via Scottish Photography Hides

via Daily Mail, PetaPixel