From Hong Kong, Bob Thompson has several flight shots of black kites on flickr under his sitename .. jingbar ... here's my favourite; How he lit the underside of the near wing I just don't know; I can find no sign of enhancement.

Black Kite - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingbar/sets/72157612320867728/)

Raptors in flight are my pet subject but this flickr portfolio contains much more than that ... his Night Herons & Pond Herons amaze me.

I wish flickr would let me sign up but it seems to be scared of Firefox even though I allow cookies on an individual basis.

Brendan,

My favorite place for taking Black Kite shots is at Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, it is only a couple of minutes walk from my office. On a clear day (we don't have many) the light reflecting off the water helps light the underside of the birds.

There are always around 6 birds looking for fish in the shelter and they are continually doing low level swoops in the chance of getting a fish. Occasionally a Eurasian Buzzard (Common Buzzard) can be seen.

Other birds seen at the shelter are Little Egrets, Black-crowned Night Herons and the occasional White-throated Kingfisher & Great Egret.

Bob

The blurb with this photo says:

Ballet Classes : Tuesdays & Thursdays
Posing Techniques : Mondays & Fridays
Typhoon Drill : Wednesdays

Studio Location : Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong
Dancing Maestro & Choreography : Bob Thompson


Anyone else like a free blurb?
I don't believe this photo is real ... it's just incredibly gorgeous (and worse still I didn't shoot it)

Brendan,

This is nice picture of a Crane or Heron, I can see why you like it!! Definitely shot with a digital slr.

Curiously, what are you working on theser days?

Brendan & Dale,

The shot is of a Little Egret and was taken on a Canon 5D Mark 2 with a Canon 400mm f5.6 lens. This is a fabulous lens for bird flight shots as the autofocus is very fast and the lens its self light, making it possible to just hang around the neck. No need for a big Wemberley head and tripod

Bob

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingbar/

Bob,

I had thought snowey egret but ruled that out. A brillant shot.

I tried the 400 lens on my xlh1 and it still made some very fine images, defintiely sharper than my 100 to 400 zoom. It is also light ernough one does not need a rail system to have it on an xl2 or H1.

I believe the real secret to great flying shots is having clearity on the head but just enough movement in the wings to show movement, The fundemental difference between snaps and pictures.

I went to your page and the night heron is perfect in this regard as you can see the small fish's tail is blurred showing movement!!! Great shot!!


the attached picture is a favorite of mine, a hawk owl shot by my friend mark wiliams.

you have some nice Pictures!!

Dale, I must admit I haven't tried the lens on my XL2 yet as I have a Canon 300mm t2.8 FD lens which is absolutely fantastic and is beautiful for manual focusing.

I have only recently taken up bird DSLR photography as a hobby but have been digiscoping for a few years,

Attached is another Little Egret shot

Phenomenal photo that is, Bob.

You have captured in one crisp shot ...

.... wild bird flight in which the bird is trailing his right foot as a brake + steeringwheel in the water to allow him target and spear a fish (or is it just a fish head) off the surface while twisting his neck 180 degrees to his line of flight ... if it's a fish head it was cut off and thrown overboard by a fisherman ... traditional recycling.

Brilliant. Thank you so much.

I was going to search my 2000 recent shots of gulls and swans but there's no point ... except to prove the point that there's no point ... so I will dig up something,

Bob,

the attached picture is a favorite of mine, a hawk owl shot by my friend mark wiliams.



There is a mosaic of different plumages captured in that beautiful shot, Dale. Also a powerful image of the hidden agenda which we can't see but the hawk owl has heard and is hunting under the snow. Thanks for digging up Mark's photo.

I believe the real secret to great flying shots is having clearity on the head but just enough movement in the wings to show movement, The fundemental difference between snaps and pictures.

Dale, I couldn't agree more with you, there are a lot of beautiful flight shots on the internet but very few have any feeling of movement. Attached is a shot of a bird in Kowloon Park in Hong Kong. It was digiscoped using a Swarovski ATS 80HD scope, 20-60x eyepiece and a Nikon 8400 camera, it is not a flight shot but it is the closest I have been to getting motion into a still shot.

Brendan, it was a whole fish that the Little Egret was able to spear. he is very skillful at getting fish and I am sure it is the same bird catching fish at this location everyday.

Bob

PS: Brendan, You forgot that we like fish-head soup here, so nothing left to recycle

Landing ...

Bob, Brendan

This last picture is fabulous!!!!! Send me a raw picture of it and I would love to use it as a screen saver!!! My friend mark would also love to see it!!

for years, 1963 to 1988 i shot stills with my Nikon F and my favorite lens, a 200mm. I had it stolen out of my truck. Every thing in slides and i still have about 700 in a case down stairs.

I prefer video these years but often I long for a canon 40d or such to use under my canon lenses!!

There are bazillions of nice snaps out there, but great pictures will always be compiled by a few gifted shooter: I am not one of them even though I won some contests in the dark ages.

It is mostly about field time; however, knowlegdge of ones equipment is paramount and only obtained by shooting lots.

I am really impressed with what some of the people in this community produce!!


Brendan,

Great vullture shot with its head so low!!!

How you like moving to the xl2 from your gl2?

I wish I could afford a good digital SLR to get back into still bird photography, which is where I started, but it's not in the stars right now. The closest thing to a digital SLR I have at the moment is the XL H1 and use the photo mode or grab a frame from the HDV video. Attached is a frame grab of a very cooperative American Kestrel. As long as the subject isn't moving, the grabs are pretty darn good, at least for web use.