Black kites of Kyoto

Giphsub

My second day out on the river in Kyoto, and the black kites were putting on quite a show! It was a bit overcast, and I couldn't seem to get good shots without really blowing the background but hey I'm happy with the results. Comments welcome. (All shot with D300 and 18-200)

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7

DonRicklin

No strings attached, but these are 'fighting kites', I'm sure.

Great Captures. Looks like they hung around awhile.

Don

dbaker1221

too bad about the light...good job on them though.. .I like 2 & 7 best

SKM

A very nice set, are they cropped as I see you were using 18-200 lens?

We are going to a red kite feeding station in Wales in a couple of months and i will be very pleased if I get some shots like yours

Regards

Stan

raptorcaptor

Great captures Mike! I used to hate photographing when it's overcast. Now I use it to practise my flash work. I also like the white backgrounds!

Giphsub

DonRicklin wrote:

No strings attached, but these are 'fighting kites', I'm sure.

Great Captures. Looks like they hung around awhile.

Don

Thanks Don. yep, they were more or less there all day, but mostly circling higher. They were down nice and low for about 5 minutes.

Giphsub

dbaker1221 wrote:

too bad about the light...good job on them though.. .I like 2 & 7 best

Thanks Dave. Well, what can you do eh! Although not the clearest shot, I quite like #2 myself.

Giphsub

SKM wrote:

A very nice set, are they cropped as I see you were using 18-200 lens?

We are going to a red kite feeding station in Wales in a couple of months and i will be very pleased if I get some shots like yours

Regards

Stan

Thanks Stan. Some were cropped a reasonable amount, but most were only slightly cropped. They were literally diving and circling within 20 meters of me Good luck with the feeding station!

Giphsub

raptorcaptor wrote:

Great captures Mike! I used to hate photographing when it's overcast. Now I use it to practise my flash work. I also like the white backgrounds!

Thanks Glenn. The white backgrounds look alright, but they certainly don't make the picture pop out at you nicely like a blue sky!

Harryb

Outstanding Mike. Sometime you just have to blow out the background sky to get your subject.

For the heck of it you may try to make the background a sky blue in PS and see how that turns out but they are fine as they are.

Maestro

That's rough about the light the action shots of the kite sure are good. Kites are some of my favorite raptors but I only have access to one type, the Mississippi Kite and that is only in the summer months.

Ric Grupe

Nothing wrong with a high keyed shot.

You got the subject exposed properly...which is most important.

Number four is very much to my liking!

Giphsub

Maestro wrote:

That's rough about the light the action shots of the kite sure are good. Kites are some of my favorite raptors but I only have access to one type, the Mississippi Kite and that is only in the summer months.

Thanks Stephen. I love the kites here in Japan, but I'm leaving to head back to Aus after being here 10 years, so I'm not gonna be seeing much more of them!

Giphsub

Ric Grupe wrote:

Nothing wrong with a high keyed shot.

You got the subject exposed properly...which is most important.

Number four is very much to my liking!

Thanks Ric! Yep, can't do much about the weather, so you're right, nothing wrong with it.

BigAl

Very nice Mike - I'm with Dave on 2 & 7

Giphsub

Thanks BigAl Yeah I was very happy with the clarity of #7.

canucklehead_7

Beautiful shot! I really like the last one the way it is posed in the air......Don