Brahminy kite

[Atul Sinai]

Shot this at around 8.30 in the morning. Light was good. It was looking for fish in the nearby pond. Got 5 different poses. Had to run to reach close enough to get this shot and not disturb the bird.

This was shot at Chorao island along the coast of river mandovi in Goa.

Canon 600D, 55-250mm

Manual Exposure
Evaluative meteting
Shutter Speed 1/800
Aperture 7.1
ISO 200
Focal Length 250mm
Cropped by 50%

Please critique.

Regards,
Atul

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Nice shot. Interesting pose and good eye contact. Wish the twig wasn't blocking it. You could try opening up the shadows.
TFS

[Mrudul Godbole]

Looks like it was about to take off. The eye contact is nice. The light was tricky. You could have raised the ISO to 400 so you could have got a higher shutter speed to photograph it in flight (that is a safety measure). Wish it had been a bit closer. Look forward to more from the series. Thanks for sharing.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice Action photograph,with about to take off posture.Brahminy Kite is an attractive bird, chestnut plumage and faintly streaked breast have come extraordinary.SaktiWild

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I love this bird. Have some fond childhood memories. We used to consider sighting one as a good omen.

I think you have done fine with the 55-250mm. If you had a longer lens or were somehow closer to the bird then you would have got even more details. Lowering the contrast and pulling up the shadows will be good. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Bhargava Srivari]

Nice pose. You could try recovering some details in the shadows. Good eye contact. I have found on some occassions that spot metering gives more realistic colors when shooting with sky as the BG, so it will be good if you can try that too for some shots along with evaluative metering.

On a side note, I love this bird so much that I have never taken photos of the bird even though I see a few of them every month when I vist bandipur/kabini :-) I just keep watching them in awe!

tfs

[Atul Sinai]

Thanks Abhishek, Mrudul, Saktipada, Sabyasachi and Bhargava for your comments.
Will try some shots with spot metering.

Regards,
Atul

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Atul,
It is not about spot metering. Spot, evaluative metering etc are tools of the trade and one needs to have a thorough understanding. Please check the tutorials in the tips section. That will give you a better idea about metering.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Atul Sinai]

Thanks Sabyasachi.

Will be studing about spot metering and then practice it. The tutorials and tips section is fantastic.

Regards,
Atul