Hovering with attitude

The success of a true hunter comes from commitment and having the ability to keep going.

On an afternoon game drive, we came across a Black-shouldered Kite busy scanning the open areas in search of a potential meal for the day.

It really is quite a thing to see them hovering and waiting for a mouse or gerbil to move and then, with explosive speed, they shoot down and grab their prey!

It is quite a difficult shot to take as the Kite hovers high up and more often than not, it means photographing into a bright background. The image I was looking for was the golden sun light on him with his wings wide open and his claws in front ready to strike at any given time.

Equipment Used

• Camera – Canon 7D Mkii
• Lens and Focal length – Sigma 150-600mm F5 – 6.3 DG @600mm

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO – 400
• Aperture – F 8
• Shutter – 1/1000

With this image, I was spot on with the setting when I took the picture so in Lightroom I did crop the image as the Kite was quite far away and what helped with clarity is that I shot this image at F 8 and a nice low ISO.

There was no use in playing around with shadows as the sun was perfectly on him and his wings were nice and open.

Overall, I am very happy with this image!