Category: Birds 'n Animals
I'd seen this bird a few times while driving around Mysore, but was in no position to take a shot. On this day, while returning from Kozhikode, I saw it again near Gundulpet. This time, I did stop the vehicle and picked up the camera:
I took some more time to identify the bird though! I first thought its a young Indian Eagle, but thought that it has some owl-like features. Finally, a mail to Gowtham resolved the issue (like always, I should add), as he identified it as a Black-winged Kite.
The lens used is Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L telephoto, supported by the half-raised window glass. I tried stopping down the aperture this time - to f/8.0 - and was pleased with the image sharpness. To make sure that the camera's exposure-meter is not fooled by the bright background, I used full manual mode with an exposure time of 1/500s. Infact, the Av mode returned smaller exposure times even in the Partial metering mode and I had to experiment with longer exposures to get a shot with good details of the bird's eye. Finally, ISO-200 was needed to make this combination work.
A note to self is to try and use narrower exposures whenever possible, even though every review in the world says the lens is as good at the widest aperture :)
