Snail Kite

[Joseph Przybyla]

Dot and I went to the west side of Lake Parker last evening. This is one of the images I captured of Snail Kites. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 500mm F/5.6 VR AF-S ED PF HH
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +1 ISO 720 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 500mm (750mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2021 and Topaz Sharpen AI
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Randy Stout]

Joe:

Nice to see a snail kite. Well exposed overall, like the intense downward stare, do wish the head was rotated a bit more our way. Not seeing a lot of detail in the head and body, more detail in wings. Probably related to the low contrast of feathers on the body/head area.
How big of crop would estimate this to be?

Cheers

Randy

[Joseph Przybyla]

Joe:

Nice to see a snail kite. Well exposed overall, like the intense downward stare, do wish the head was rotated a bit more our way. Not seeing a lot of detail in the head and body, more detail in wings. Probably related to the low contrast of feathers on the body/head area.
How big of crop would estimate this to be?

Cheers

Randy

Hi Randy, thank you for viewing and commenting. Pretty big crop, also last evening was gray and dark, cloudy all day. Very flat light, exposure had to be raised. I agree, not the best but now I know the Snail Kites are easy to find and photograph there I'll be going back often in better light.

[Randy Stout]

Joe:

Because the light was cloudy/soft, I think you could increase the mid range contrast a bit, which did show a bit more detail on the body/head. Not perfect, but better to my eye.

Randy

[Joseph Przybyla]

Joe:

Because the light was cloudy/soft, I think you could increase the mid range contrast a bit, which did show a bit more detail on the body/head. Not perfect, but better to my eye.

Randy

Thanks Randy, will try.

[gail bisson]

It is always a good day when you see a snail kite!
I do wish the head was rotated towards us.
Nice light.
I think the big crop had hurt the IQ of the image somewhat but a solid frame nonetheless.
Gail

[John Mack]

The kite looks concentrated on getting some snails. I don't mind the lack of eye contact.

[Arthur Morris]

I mind the lack of eye contact :) You did rather well in very tough conditions.

with love, a