In Air Food Exchange

Gallery: AvianPosted April 11, 2012522 views17 comments

Nikon D4
600mm + 1.4 converter
1/2000
F/9
ISO 640
Metering Spot
Exposure Manual
White Balance Sunny
Tripod w/Wimberly Head
Raw
Cropped 70%

It has been a great year for the white tail kites. Numerous nests to shoot and lots of good company to shoot with. NPN'ers, Eric, Skip, and Patrick have been shooting this terrific nest spot as well and it's been great fun shooting with them. I was alone the day I captured this exchange and thought that it had a different perspective than most of my other exchange captures in that both of the birds were facing the camera and had light in the eyes. It seems like you got a capture a lot of images to get both birds with light in the eyes. Anyway, I kind of like the perspective of this unique way that kites exchange food with one another. It only happens when the kites are mating, nesting and when the offspring fledge the nest for a couple of weeks. We have been lucky with this set of kites because they seem to do their mid air food exchanges in the same place every time. Gotta love that. Larger image provided.

Comments

17 comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on April 11, 2012 at 10:47 PM

Another exceptional image - great light and exposure, a wonderful perspectiv with heads/ eyes/ talons/ prey clearly visible, and tack-sharp.
Doesn't get much better than this!

Sandy

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

Comment posted by Patrick O'Healy on April 11, 2012 at 10:51 PM

Stunning image. Too bad we did not see this angle and light while together. I got several, but nothing like this.

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

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on April 11, 2012 at 10:59 PM

Completely amazing timing to catch this behavior with perfect exposure and sharpness, detail so good it can be clearly seen even in the small version, and this position of the birds. Awesome image, David.

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

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on April 12, 2012 at 12:40 AM

Nice capture David. Love the action in this.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on April 12, 2012 at 6:37 AM

The larger version is really nice David. The position of the two birds is great. Well done for sure.

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

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on April 12, 2012 at 7:37 AM

Amazing detail and action David - well done

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Charles Gangas on April 12, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Terrific shot David. Very neat behavioral capture - excellent light and detail.

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

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on April 12, 2012 at 8:34 AM

Fantastic timing of your shot. I'm guessing you were shooting in continuous burst mode, but still, fantastic. Details and exposure on this tough shot are right on the money. Any of us would be thrilled to have this in our files.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on April 12, 2012 at 9:55 AM

Gorgeous, David. I love the action and the relative positions of the two birds. Which is the recipient? Excellent image quality.

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

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on April 12, 2012 at 12:46 PM

Wonderful behavior shot David, great lighting and incredible action. When you say it was cropped 70% do you mean that 30% of the original image is remaining after the crop or 70% is remaining?

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on April 12, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Awesome action. Very nice IQ and image overall.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by David Haynes on April 12, 2012 at 2:13 PM

Questions answered: To Keith...Yes, this image was taken in continuous burst mode. There were almost 80 images captured during this exchange. Some exchanges happen in two or three seconds and others take several attempts and several seconds like this one. What I love about my new D4 is that I have yet to fill the buffer. It is said that it can go slightly over 100 RAW images before the buffer fills. If I had been shooting this with my D300s I would have missed this image because my buffer would have filled up after about 20 raw images.
Nate: You are correct....I have only about 30% of the original image left after cropping. Again, shooting with the D4 has made a huge difference in how much detail I can retain while cropping heavily. Hope that answers your questions. To everyone, thanks very much for the comments.

Registered on February 20, 2010, 110 Posts, 1511 Comments

Comment posted by Harry Harris on April 12, 2012 at 2:50 PM

OK David, I am glad you posted this. Next time we go out you have to help me shoot so I can achieve this quality of image. Really nice. I enjoy your images so much. Till next time.

Registered on August 2, 2010, 169 Posts, 741 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on April 12, 2012 at 5:30 PM

Wonderful action and amazing that this is only 30% of original image yet still has detail with no visible noise. Nice job in getting this difficult shot, way to go.

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

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on April 13, 2012 at 3:41 AM

Hello David, amazing capture, something that one doesn't witness every day

An enormous WOW-factor