English Kittiwake

[Stephen Stephen]

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s219/Squidcan/English%20Birds/Kittwakw08_04.jpg

I created this image on Seaford Head in East Sussex, England. According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) the Kittiwake colony there is perhaps the most accessible in England. I spoke to the one of the RSPB volunteers one day and apparently they are expecting some of the prime nesting ledges, on these chalk cliffs, to be lost to errosion but for now they remain intact. :)

I started out creating images from below the colony but I then moved above them to try for some flight images. The birds were constantly soaring out over the water from beneath me but I had to stay clear of the cliff edge. This made anticipating when a bird might appear, so that I might create an image, a challenge.

In addition the tide was going out so that the OOF background changed from bright cream rocks to grey sea as the bird flew about. This made adjusting exposure one the fly difficult.

Canon 40D, Sigma 50-500mm at 266mm, ISO400, F 7.1, 1/4000 Handheld

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the topside view, BG and open bill. The BG looks a bit noisy and I wish for a bit more eye contact. Thanks for sharing!

[Doug Brown]

Great feather detail with that topside view Stephen! I'd like to see more eye contact, less BG noise, and perhaps a slightly brighter image. Thanks for posting!

[Fabs Forns]

Very Kittiwake-like fly pose, and they are always screaming at the top of their lungs too :)

Very nice top view.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Topside view is very cool, well done. I agree noise reduction would be beneficial here.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

It is always great to have the opportunity to see the topside and with the open beak I can hear him calling. Agree a little more head turn would be nice but do like it as is Stephen too.

[Stephen Stephen]

Thank you Axel, Doug, Fabs, Dan and Judy for your comments. I can definitely say that they were calling constantly. It was really exciting to have them occasionally pop up unexpectedly, over the cliff top, a few feet from me and just at eye level!. They dropped down just as quickly once we met eye to eye! :D

I must say that I'm disappointed with the noise here. I thought that I had dealt with the problem in post processing. The only thing that I can think of is that I perhaps accidentally uploaded the wrong version.:(

I'll check and home tonight and re-post a cleaner one.

[Stephen Stephen]

Here's a re-worked version in which I hope that I've taken your advice into consideration.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s219/Squidcan/English%20Birds/Rework2Kittwake_filtered.jpg