Fly fishing this is not, but I figured some of you may be interested. After all, we all like to look at birds…don’t we? I took a trip to the Harewood estate last week on the off-chance that I might see and photograph one of the numerous red kites that can be found there. Turned out I’d picked a cracking day for it, the weather was beautiful and there were 4 or 5 kites milling around, as well as a couple of buzzards.
I’m not used to taking pictures of birds in flight but I had a good stab at it, and quite pleased with the results. I could definitely get into this!
For those interested I was using a Canon 30D with 100-400mm lens, spot metering, ISO 200, and most shot at F7.1 1/640 sec. Processing was mainly crop/zoom, levels tweak and very light sharpening.
I hadn’t realised the markings were so vivid and complex. In retrospect I should’ve gone hunting around for discarded feathers to incorporate into a new pattern. “What fly did I get it on? Oh, I call it the raptor. To tie, first take 3 primary feathers from a red kite….”
Amazing photographs! Thanks for sharing these.
Great pictures! The Kites are doing really well and spreading across the area. I was fishing on the Wharfe at Pool over Christmas and had one cruising up and down the river bank. Beautiful Creatures.
Thanks 🙂
They are indeed doing well, in fact they can often be seen over Harehills in Leeds of all places!!