Snail Kite

[Gayle Clement]

I photographed my first snail kite today and was thrilled to see a pair of these beautiful birds. I'm in the area for a few more days and hope to have other opportunities with the pair.

Cypress Lake
Nikon D2Xs
Nikkor 500mm f/4
Nikon 1.4 Teleconverter
1/400s f/8.0 at 700.0mm iso100

[Lana Hays]

Gayle
I like the inclusion of the "snail". BG is wonderful and an excellent pose. The whole bird appears soft. I'd try another round of USM. I'd bump up the ISO to get more shutterspeed as well next time.

[Fabs Forns]

Nicely captures, Gayle. Agree it needs another round of sharpening. Got my Bosque tickets already :)

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Gale get a D3 !!!!!!! You can shoot at 1600 all day !!!!

I know you are worried about noise but would comfortably go to 320 The combo of 700 mm and 1/400 ss always worries me My rule of thumb is ... noise is better than shake !!! I think in this one you did real well keeping the rig steady and a pass of usm will get the results !!!!!