White Tailed Kite in Flight @ 1000mm

[Loi Nguyen]

Another image of a White Tailed Kite bringing food to nest @ 1000 mm. I got to the nest tree around 4PM and there were a flurry of activities of the kites bringing food to the nest. The tree is pretty high, so I cannot be certain that there are any chicks yet. Then everything went quite until sunset where both kites flew over the nest tree. So, I guess I would just have to wait until the chicks get bigger.

1DX
500f4 II + 2X III
1/2000
f10
ISO-1250
Evaluative Metering, + 2/3 EV off the blue sky
Manual Mode
Tripod
Cropped to ~ 10M pixels

Appreciate your comments

Thank you

Loi

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Loi,

Hope you get out there when the chicks get a little older. For this image, I think the spread wings and head angle are great. While I'm not sure if you blew out the highlights, they are a bit bright compared to the underside of the wings, but that's just the light you were in.

Miguel

[Marina Scarr]

Not to shabby for 1000mm, Loi. I like the pose and the way the bird is looking at you. The large crop is somewhat visible but image still works. You might try lightening the far underwing just a little.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Loi, great show of the wingspan from the banking angle, with excellent eye contact. A little too central for me - you could either move him back to the left a tad, or maybe create a vertical.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone for your helpful comments. Here is a vertical crop. Also brightened the lower wing a bit and reduced the overall brightness a little.

Miguel, I don't think the whites were blown, no blinkies, but they were close to 250 in DPP.

Marina, I find that if I take the time to acquire the target and hold my fire until I'm sure the focus is locked, I have better percentage of keepers with the 2X. These birds are small and the IQ suffers if I use the 1.4X and then crop too much.

Loi

Loi

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful shot! These guys are hard to catch in action. Getting on one and following the action at 1000mm is impressive.

[dankearl]

Loi,
I hope you take this in the best way, you seem to really work at this hobby and spend the
Time and effort and I enjoy your images.
You always seem to shoot at 1000mm and still do significant crops.
I think you might want to spend time getting closer to your subjects, or try some different subjects.
This one looks nice, but the light is harsh and it is difficult to get a nice image shooting upward at the sky.
Maybe try some other birds at some closer distances, just my opinion.
I would also shoot wipe open at this distance, you are stopping down and increasing iso for no benefit

[Loi Nguyen]

Loi,
I hope you take this in the best way, you seem to really work at this hobby and spend the
Time and effort and I enjoy your images.
You always seem to shoot at 1000mm and still do significant crops.
I think you might want to spend time getting closer to your subjects, or try some different subjects.
This one looks nice, but the light is harsh and it is difficult to get a nice image shooting upward at the sky.
Maybe try some other birds at some closer distances, just my opinion.
I would also shoot wipe open at this distance, you are stopping down and increasing iso for no benefit

Dan, I appreciate your honest feedback. I'm new to this hobby and the greatest challenge for me is to find the birds and next is to get close. These are more or less my practice shootings. As for the subjects, I like raptors and would rather figure out how to Porsche them than say going to some tamer subjects. Shooting at 10000mm is also a skill that I like to develop and I don't know how often you use the 2X, but stopping down is a good way to increase sharpness IMO. The 1DX can handle ISO-1250 no problem. If the image is grainy, then it is my skill to lame, but no issue with ISO 1250 I think.