This image is of a red kite feeding on the wing. He is a wild bird native of Wales and is being fed at Gigrin Farm, Wales, an official red kite feeding station. The kites are extremely fast and do not like to stand on the ground, so when they think it is safe they swoop down and grab a chunk of beef. Usually other birds like crows need to be seen on the ground feeding before the kites will swoop down. All the spectators and I are in a large wooden hide trying to sit quietly. It was really great to see so many kites in one area; I just wish the weather had been brighter.

For this capture I shot at 370mm on a Canon 50D using a 100~400mm F/5.6 lens, giving me a total reach of 592mm. The exposure was 1/640 of a second @ f/8 and ISO 1000. Unfortunately that gave me quite a lot of noise which was unavoidable as this was not a bright day. Aperture priority with a positive stop of exposure compensation and servo focus were the settings used. The RAW processing, adjusting and saving the image were all done in Photoshop CS/4.

Click here to improve your photography ... on the Isle of Wight