Red Kite - Bellymack Hill Farm

I'm just back from a weekend in Dumfries and Galloway and was lucky enough to visit the Red Kite feeding station at Bellymack Hill Farm.

I would welcome your C&C on these few from the visit please.

they are so photogenic when they are in play mode
i have had 6 pairs with me all day to day and no dam camera i personaly like the 4th one as they are so adgil
regards stu

The best are 1 & 2 IMO .... 1 is amazing, you can hardly see where the page ends and the photo starts which is really interesting - the background works brilliantly, and so clever to have got the face!

No 2 is fantastic - a great span of wings and full-on action - the graininess in the background is not unattractive, but you might try blurring it a little to smooth it more - and perhaps the bird is a touch over-sharpened?

No 3 has some vignetting going on at the left corners.

Super stuff Barrie. Its a spectacle. I'll have to get up again sometime soon.

1/8000 sec. You sure that's fast enough?

Great shots Barrie. Loads of these wild around here but they rarely come close enough to get the level of detail you have captured.

Carl

Not judging by the number I missed

1 lucky more than clever I'm affraid.

2 Thanks for the tip, it does work better

3 I applied the vignetting with Lightroom and it did not look so pronounced then, I'll have to tone it down or remove it

Thanks Carl, that's the advantage of the feeding station it draws them to within a few meters. The problem then is they are so agile it's hard to track them.

Superb set Barrie, I like them all just can't choose a favourite.

Thank you for sharing these with us.

You don't need feeding stations in South Germany - the perishers dive bomb the road traffic to drop carcasses in front of vehicles. The birds have learned that it is easier to eat once their dinner has been run over! When a six foot wingspan zooms past the windscreen you get a right fright - bin there, done it, missed the birdie!

Fantastic pictures of these ones however - thanks for sharing them.

David

Great stuff, Barrie.

I like #2 as it is, but would be interested to see the modified version as proposed by Nigel.

I often leave the M40 at junction 5 to observe the red kites that gather nearby. They drift quite low and I've managed a few OK shots, but nothing even remotely as detailed as these...

Following along the lines of Nigel's suggestion




Thank you all for your kind words

Barrie,you have not cleaned up the wing tip in the top RH corner.
I thought this photo was stunning apart from the noise issue. I copied it and used the NR in Faststone and it worked a treat. Give it a go.

John

Just WOW!
I can only dream of getting shots like this.

Harry

Thanks John. I tried NR in Faststone but ended up with artifacts round the wing tips (probably not doing it correctly) so I've had a go with Topaz DeNoise.

Spot on Barrie