Prey Exchange

Gallery: AvianPosted March 25, 2012291 views16 comments

After being relegated to the confines of our garage with our cats for a week ( our house is being painted ) I finally got to go out for a shoot yesterday at one of our local parks. Met up with NPNers David Haynes and Patrick O'Healy, they are great company. The White-tailed Kites put on a great show of various behaviors and just before I left they performed an inflight food exchange. While the crop leaves about 48% of the original images and not as sharp as I would like, I thought the action warranted posting.

I took a lot of flight images and a lot were soft. I think I am not focusing correctly. I shoot flight shots in 3 to 4 frame bursts so I do not filled the buffer. I think my (mine not the camera) shutter pressing is not allowing the camera to focus properly.

Comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

7D wit 500mm and tripod
1/1000 at f / 6.3
ISO 320
EV = + 1.0
AV
Pattern metering

Comments

16 comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on March 25, 2012 at 1:12 PM

I think this is remarkable!

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Frye on March 25, 2012 at 1:32 PM

Love the action -- I have never seen nor heard of in flight food exchange -- usually see the bird for food in the air. Really nice naturific moment

Registered on February 3, 2007, 387 Posts, 1136 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Teller on March 25, 2012 at 3:12 PM

The action is great and captured very well. The image is very sharp for the large crop and the whites are handled very well.

Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments

Comment posted by Alan Murphy on March 25, 2012 at 3:16 PM

Great behavior captured here. Wish you could crop closer.

Registered on December 3, 2003, 192 Posts, 739 Comments

Comment posted by Ray Whitt on March 25, 2012 at 6:49 PM

Excellent catch! wonderful shot.

Ray

Registered on May 27, 2011, 92 Posts, 2619 Comments

Comment posted by Sally Wood on March 25, 2012 at 7:27 PM

Great job in catching this action! Nice image...

Registered on March 8, 2012, 39 Posts, 509 Comments

Comment posted by Patrick O'Healy on March 25, 2012 at 9:02 PM

Great shot Harry! You are far too critical of your work. You got the capture with optimum head and body positions, and it is a great shot.

Registered on March 13, 2011, 326 Posts, 1679 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 26, 2012 at 6:19 AM

Great action Skip. Love the exposure. Only wish is for the birds to be larger in the frame. A bit too much open space for me, but I would love to have this in my files.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Matt Shellenberg on March 26, 2012 at 12:28 PM

You captured some great behavior here, Harry. Very cool.

Registered on February 6, 2008, 168 Posts, 3118 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on March 26, 2012 at 2:10 PM

Very interesting behavior and nice job in getting this, these flight shots take good practice and timing, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Charles Gangas on March 26, 2012 at 8:00 PM

Excellent action very well captured Skip. Congrats

Registered on August 12, 2009, 544 Posts, 2414 Comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on March 26, 2012 at 8:29 PM

Amazing behavior.

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on March 26, 2012 at 11:34 PM

Awesome behavior action displayed here. Great Catch Skip

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Schwarz on March 27, 2012 at 10:10 AM

Great capture. I would be more than happy to get a shot like this.

Registered on November 29, 2006, 236 Posts, 1210 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on March 28, 2012 at 1:06 AM

Amazing capture!!
You got the perfect angle here to show the exchange. Both birds are in great position, nice detail, and clear BG.
Hope you have recovered from the painting and that it lasts a lifetime! No fun at all, but worth the outcome.

Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on March 28, 2012 at 9:49 AM

Great shot, Skip. Do you use your shutter button for autofocus? At the recommendation of several good BIF folks, I've changed mine so the AF On button on the back handles the autofocus. I also read recently about a technique of getting the focus and then just occasionally bumping it instead of holding it down continuously. I haven't had time to try it much yet, but the little I have seems to work.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments