White-tailed kite in flight

[Tin Man Lee]

A bit frustrated by the skittish WTKs, I decided to experiment with the new 2X converter with 500mm today near Thousand Oaks, CA.
Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm f4, 2x III, f/11, 1/2500s, ISO 1600, handheld.
Sharpened the bird, noise reduction on background. C&C welcome.

[gail bisson]

Hi Tin Man,
This is a terrific image. I like the BG and the vertical comp. Nice wing spread and good eye contact. Amazing capture especially with the converter on. Subject acquisition is so difficult with converters on so I am very impressed,
Gail

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice light and banking pose...Love there eyes. I would take a sliver off the back...Small nit though!

[arash_hazeghi]

awesome pose BG and a great look. from the noise looks like it was a big crop though

[Mark Itol]

Great topside view and head angle.

[Robert Holguin]

Great flight shot. Great head angle and nice pose. Well done.

[Tin Man Lee]

Thank you all for your comments! Really appreciate it.
Dumay, where is the silver dot on the back? I have some difficulty finding it.
Arash, good eyes! Yes, big crop. Vertically, I cropped it from 3200 pixels to 2000 pixels and then resize to 800 for BPN. You have an amazing gallery of WTKs in smugmug. How did you get so close to them? I ended up walking back and forth from two trees they kept flying between and never was able to get too close. That's why I tried the 2x.

[Pieter de Waal]

Lovely banking pose with great head turn and eye contact

[adrian dancy]

Tin
Dumay did not say there was a 'silver dot on the back'...he said he would 'take a sliver off the back... small nit though': meaning he would crop the back but it's only a minor point. I hope this explanation helps.

A fine image in my view for the reasons given above.

[Tin Man Lee]

Ahh thanks for explaining. My bad english. What was I thinking! And I actually thought I overexposed some pixels. Thanks Adrian. And thanks Dumay for the suggestion.

[Dan Busby]

Love the banking position and the head angle as it looks in the direction it is turning to. Nice exposure. The background is a bit spotty but all nice and smooth so not a distraction. Nice job of a tough situation!

[arash_hazeghi]

Thank you all for your comments! Really appreciate it.
Dumay, where is the silver dot on the back? I have some difficulty finding it.
Arash, good eyes! Yes, big crop. Vertically, I cropped it from 3200 pixels to 2000 pixels and then resize to 800 for BPN. You have an amazing gallery of WTKs in smugmug. How did you get so close to them? I ended up walking back and forth from two trees they kept flying between and never was able to get too close. That's why I tried the 2x.

That's not a very big crop, did you have to sharpen much because of the 2X?

Kite shots are pretty much by luck here too, last year there was a nest in PA area and I had a few opportunities but I had two spend almost a whole week to get those images, they are extremely skittish and hard to approach. I have found it more effective when I don't move at all and just wait until they come to me :)

[RAM MALLYA]

Lovely flight captured loved the compo too .

[Tin Man Lee]

Thank you so much for your great info, Arash! You have some insanely cool action shots in addition to all the amazing in flight shots.

Yes they are so skittish. I am too impatient to wait but I agree waiting for them to come is the only way to go. And when they hover and hunt, they seem to ignore me and I can get a bit closer. But then, they hover all over the place and I had to run across multiple slopes to catch them, which was killing me...

Attached is the 100% crop without any sharpening. I was pleasantly surprised by the sharpness. It's just quite noisy on the background, I guess its due to ISO 1600 (or that I didn't expose all the way to the right?) but the bird looks fine. I wasn't comfortable to shoot at any shutter speed slower than 1/1600s for the kites with the 2x converter on...

[arash_hazeghi]

Thank you so much for your great info, Arash! You have some insanely cool action shots in addition to all the amazing in flight shots.

Yes they are so skittish. I am too impatient to wait but I agree waiting for them to come is the only way to go. And when they hover and hunt, they seem to ignore me and I can get a bit closer. But then, they hover all over the place and I had to run across multiple slopes to catch them, which was killing me...

Attached is the 100% crop without any sharpening. I was pleasantly surprised by the sharpness. It's just quite noisy on the background, I guess its due to ISO 1600 (or that I didn't expose all the way to the right?) but the bird looks fine. I wasn't comfortable to shoot at any shutter speed slower than 1/1600s for the kites with the 2x converter on...

Now I see Tin Man! it is quite a tight crop but you did well given the conditions. you did a good job with BG NR and exposure is great just need to apply some gentle NR to the dark feathers where noise is creeping in. Hope you can get a closer flyby next time!

I know what you mean going up and downhill, it gives you a good workout ;)