Kiss Me Kite!

[Jim Neiger]

Here is an example of pristine plumage adult Snail Kites, both male and female. These kites appeared to kiss as they touched bills, but I think it was their Snail Exchange courting behavior only without a snail. The image was made Wednesday morning while I was out in the boat with Artie and Denise.

http://www.flightschoolphotography.com/POST/SK919.jpg

Osceola County, Fl - Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm, hand held, 1/1000, F5, ISO 800, manual exposure, removed leg bands from female. The male was not banded.

[Ilija Dukovski]

This is really wonderful, the birds are great and the BG is
excellent too. The pose could not be captured better,
especially the female, reminds me of poses on 19 century
bird paintings, Audubon's and like.

[Ofer Levy]

Fantastic interaction captured! Would move the birds higher in the frame and crop as a tighter vertical. Looks a bit noisy - I assume it is a big crop.

[Jim Neiger]

Fantastic interaction captured! Would move the birds higher in the frame and crop as a tighter vertical. Looks a bit noisy - I assume it is a big crop.

Hi Ofer,

This is not a large crop. I shot it horizontaly, so I don't have any room to move the birds up in the frame. I tried a tighter crop on the right side, but it looked a little crowded to me.

[Harshad Barve]

excellent image , I liked this very much as posted
TFS

[Ofer Levy]

Hi Ofer,

This is not a large crop. I shot it horizontaly, so I don't have any room to move the birds up in the frame. I tried a tighter crop on the right side, but it looked a little crowded to me.

Thanks Jim. I would love to see the uncropped original as I am considering getting the Mark 4 and keen to see the reason for the noise on the birds.

[Stu Bowie]

Its always great to capture behavioural shots, no matter what they are. Comp wise, I would maybe take a bit off the top. I do detect some noise in the image.

[Lorant Voros]

Beautiful photo displaying a nice behavior of fantastic birds. I see some noise and there is a strange line at the foot of the female....is it a spider web?
TFS

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very cool interaction, I also like the soft light. Considering that Artie's image is at 1/320s and ISO 1000, I guess that the original was underexposed, hence the noise. Reducing the color noise would probably take care of it.

[Jim Neiger]

Beautiful photo displaying a nice behavior of fantastic birds. I see some noise and there is a strange line at the foot of the female....is it a spider web?
TFS

Yes - spider web.

[Jim Neiger]

Very cool interaction, I also like the soft light. Considering that Artie's image is at 1/320s and ISO 1000, I guess that the original was underexposed, hence the noise. Reducing the color noise would probably take care of it.

Axel,

The image was not underexposed at all. It was made the day before Artie's image.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful interaction captured jim, nice colourful BG too..

[Morkel Erasmus]

lovely interaction Jim...the birds look a bit noisy too? comparing to Artie's image (from the same trip I assume) at ISO 1000 there's a marked difference...did you apply noise reduction at all?

[denise ippolito]

Jim, Fantastic! Your flight skills are amazing. This image is one of a kind. Congrats!!
We had a great time and each got some great images.:)

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent interaction and sharpness, it has fine detail but color noise is very visible, Canon cameras typically do need color noise suppression, Adobe software does this automatically but if you use Canon DPP, Capture One or Breeze whatever (forgot the name) you have to turn it on.

Great shot