Male Snail Kite in Flight

[Jim Neiger]

http://www.flightschoolphotography.com/POST/SK17.jpg
Osceola County, Florida - 1D2N, 500mm, hand held from stepladder on boat, 1/1000, F5, ISO 400, FF, manual exposure

This image and the story behind it are a followup to the post I made in a thread in the GPD forum about setting golas. You can find the post here:
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?p=305610#post305610

Here is the story behind this image:

While photographing a colony of nesting Snail Kites, I noticed a pattern where a pristine adult male Snail Kite would fly from it's nest and glide over to a nearby perch when his mate flew into the nest. He repeatedly used this perch when he left the nest. I envisioned an image of the kite gliding with it's wings wide open from the topside view and the purple flowers of pickeral weed and the green vegetation around them out of focus in the bg. The problem was that I needed to be about 10 feet above the water to get the angle I needed for the shot. The plan I came up with was to place a 6 foot stepladder on my boat and sit on top of the ladder while waiting for the critical moment. I picked a day with clear skies and positioned myself to take advantage of the light angle, angle of the bird, and the bg. I had to wait a couple of hours but I got the image pretty much as I envisioned it.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great image, even better educational story.
Knowing your birds and their behavior is the key.
I can't believe this is hand-held 500mm. What's the secret:)

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

A really fine image, and the story is very instructional. The Dof has kept the central core of the image sharp, with slightly blurred wing tips, nice sense of movement. the face is commanding, really stands out.

In a perfect world, a bit more room right and below, and wish the wing didn't merge with the purple.

Overall, ext. nice, and a good example of pre visualization, and making an image happen.

Cheers

Randy

[Lorant Voros]

Nice story and great vision that brought a fantastic pin sharp BIF image to you. Congratulations.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Thanks for sharing the story Jim. The image is a result of your dedication, skills and knowledge as well as planning it out to the last nuance! Awesome man! Just awesome. I do ask, how did you ensure your ladder was stable atop the deck? Nothing like a wet captain? :D

[Ramon M. Casares]

Amazing detail, light, exppsure, colors and BG, I love the wing spread but I am not crazy about the wing position to be honest.
Congratulaitons on a fine iamge though!

[Dave Barnes]

And the time taken in planning and setting up sure paid dividends. Superb angle and IQ.
I like a lot. Congrats.

[Markus Jais]

As all your flight shots, this one is amazing. Great light, wing pose and angle of view. You are a true master.

Thanks also for the very interesting story. I think the most important thing you wrote here is to have the image already in your head and then finding a solution to get it.

Markus

[Ryan Lambert]

Super planning paid-off you got the image you wanted, so congrats...I like the angle of flight and the slight dorsal view, the image is sharp with good color. F8 would most probably have given you that extra bit of DOF...

[Jim Neiger]

Super planning paid-off you got the image you wanted, so congrats...I like the angle of flight and the slight dorsal view, the image is sharp with good color. F8 would most probably have given you that extra bit of DOF...

Thanks, Ryan. If I had used F8 I would have had a shutter speed of 1/500. This wouldn't have been enough to produce a sharp image. I try to avoid going over ISO 400 with the 1D2N. With the 1D3 I don't hesitate to go to ISO 800. I actualy wanted to keep the DOF to a minimum anyway so the BG would be as OOF as possible. Since I planned this ahead of time, I chose my settings to get as close as possible to the image I desired.

[Kobus Tollig]

GReat pose comp and exposure well done

[Kiran Poonacha]

Very beautiful, light loved the focus and the angle.. congrats..

[Juan Aragonés]

Killer image and superb light Jim. A bit tight in the frame to my taste, specially at the bottom, but just a fantastic image. Love the pose of the bird and the extremelly attractive eye contact. The red of the eye and face just pop-up and shines a lot against the green BG. Excellent job (I have to read that interesting thread in GPD)