Black Shouldered Kite .... calling pose

[Atul Sinai]

Hi,

Shot in Pune. This one was sitting at the top of the tree. Was looking for flight shot, hence higher shutter speed. Also got some shots with narrower aperture.

There was a pair of black shouldered kite there.

Please critique.

Canon 600D. 400mm f5.6
Manual Exposure
Manual Focus
Manual metering
Shutter Speed 1/1250
Aperture 5.6
ISO 200
Focal Length 400mm
Cropped by 29%
Tripod Support

Regards,
Atul

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I love their red eyes. So I prefer to always move around to get the light from behind. In this case the calling pose is nice. Where was the other kite? Its right eye is in shade. Early morning light would have been great as part of its left eye is also in shade.

Did you get a flight shot? Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice calling pose. I am not very sure, but I would have liked the bird to be a bit more sharp. You could have increased the ISO and used a narrower aperture while still getting the high shutter speed. Thanks for sharing.

P.S - you can place your copyright mark on the left or right corner.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

I am Afraid of the Smouldering Red Eyes of this Beautiful Bird.Nice that you have seen it, narrowly missed showing us both Red Eyes(!) but Calling Pose Well documented. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Atul Sinai]

Sabyasachi, saw two of them on the same tree, but were not close enough to fit in one frame. The other one was hidden behind the branches.
Even I love to get the light behind. Moving around to get sun behind was tough due to obstructions, was not getting the angle right.

It turned and flew backwards so couldn't get a flight shot.

Here is another one with better eye contact and narrower aperture.

Mrudul, when light is good I generally hesitate to go to ISO 400 as noise starts creeping in with my 600D.

Canon 600D. 400mm f5.6
Manual Exposure
Manual Focus
Manual metering
Shutter Speed 1/500
Aperture 9.0
ISO 200
Focal Length 400mm
Cropped by 62%
Tripod Support

Regards,
Atul

[Atul Sinai]

Shaktipada, at that moment I hoped I had 1.4x extender to increase my reach. Enjoyed watching the red eyes of this bird on lcd screen of my camera with 10x zoom while focusing manually.

Regards,
Atul

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Bhai Atul,By Posting the Second Photograph,You have Intelligently taken away the Emotional Bind of Not Seeing Both Eyes Equally Good. I am now quite comfortable.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Bhargava Srivari]

Atul,

Good that you got to shoot the calling pose. Agree with comments made about the first image.

The second image too doesn't appear sharp. A large crop, perhaps.

Cheers

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Good you got it on a natural perch. mostly get to see them on electric wires.
TFS
Roopak