Sam Kite Photography

I have been looking back through old photos in preparation for the Christmas fair at the start of December and came across this sunset shot of a mother langur and her young, captured at Chittorgarh Fort, India.

I love looking back through old photos and finding gems you had totally forgotten about - like this little blue tit catching the sunlight at Askham Bog!

This little chap will be available as a mounted 10x8" print, a 5x5" greetings card and as a little keyring! Poppleton Tithe Barn - Saturday 3rd December - 10am-4:30am!

Playing with light on the Portsmouth - St Malo ferry.

Reminiscing on my time spent with these little beauties on Lunga with . These Atlantic Puffins are full of character and never cease to make you smile!

The tufty, tufted Duck or tufted pochard dons a pretty stellar hair style, which 1. Lives up to its name and 2. Means it is easily identified.

Being Britain's most common diving duck means you probably don't have to go too far to find one, but still are up there with my favourite duck species.

This was taken at Adel Dam in Leeds, a fantastic place to get up close to some stunning species.

If you were a small rodent, this would be a terrifying thing to see when you looked up, a red kite soaring on the wing high up, with eyes locked on to those below. Terrible, but perhaps a little better than seeing a barn owl or a kestrel - red kites lack the power and strength of other birds of prey which some what explains why this species tends to rely on scavenging.

Often seen snatching food from the floor and eating on the wing or taking it to a favoured branch, the red kite is rarely seen feeding on the floor.

The monochromatic suits of these little guys aren't just there to make them look dapper atop the cliffs, they're a life saver, literally.. a life saver!

Puffins spend their first 2-3 years at sea, and then 2/3s of the following years diving down for food or just chilling on the waves. On the surface these guys are open to aerial and aquatic predators, surely?! Well.. thanks to their little tuxedos, they're not! Their white bellies blend in with the sky from below, and their black backs make them hard to see from above. Hidden in plain sight, genius.

The turnstone, Arenaria interpres, is a common sight around our coasts in the winter, strutting up and down the shoreline doing their thing, which funnily enough, yep you guessed it, is turning over stones.

These beautiful birds will turn over stones and rocks looking for prey, even rocks as big as its own body!!

This individual was taken at Bridlington Harbour, running up and down the harbour walls taking scraps from the fishermen, posing nicely for me to snap a portrait.

Having been to Leeds countless times and seeing red kites soar over head most, if not every time I visit is always a joy. The red kite, Milvus milvus were released to the Harewood estate in 1999 as part of the UK Conservation Plan and it really is home to a strong hold of them now - you only have to drive near Harewood House, look up and it won't be long before you spot one.

But one very special place to see them is the Muddy Boots Cafe. They are fed here, so that obviously does help with seeing them, but I was not anticipating how close they would come. Seeing them weave in and out of one another and perform their own ballet in the skywas a moment I won't forget any time soon.

Lunga was incredible, I really couldn't believe the sheer number of puffins there, and thinking back I still can't. It was one of those unbelievable experiences that feels like it didn't even happen.

As comical and entertaining as these little guys are, plodding along with their colourful bills, one of their superpowers lies in their little wings. These little birds can fly at an impressive 55mph, but that isn't an easy feat! They need to flap their wings at a rate of 400 times per minute! This one didn't flap theirs quite that quickly, but was still worth a shot when they chose to do it atop a little mound.

Whilst the clear blue skies in Mull were glorious, it was when the cloud cover came in and the rain started to drizzle that the landscape became other worldly and incredibly moody. Every way you looked was beautiful, so when there was a pull off beside this loch, I just had to get out and capture it before the heavens really opened.

I think that Atlantic Puffins, the clowns of the sea, (collectively making a circus) must have a special place in everyone's heart, their monochromatic suit topped off with a vibrant bill just tug on the heart strings!

I've always wanted to spend time photographing this species up close and when I got the chance to on Lunga, in the Treshnish Isles the smile on my face was from ear to ear. I was in heaven!

Comical, colourful, but nothing if not determined! These little fellas can use their wings and electric orange feet to swim down to depths of 60m to catch their prey!

Without a doubt, The Isle of Mull and I have to say it is one of the most special places I have ever visited and it has captured my heart, I already cannot wait to return one day soon. Bright blue skies and the glisten of the sun off the water welcomed us into Craignure and the view from the holiday cottage was no different. Looking out over the sound of Mull from the windows was a constant invitation to walk down to the shore and explore.

We headed down and arrived at the shoreline near high tide and with a choir of sea birds and waders, we surveyed the waves lapping on the rocky shore. My eyes were drawn to movement in and around the stones, and through the binoculars I I.D'd them as ringed plovers, a pair of them patrolling backwards and forwards. When they were visibly distracted, I sneaked down to the shore line and laid down on my front and waited for them to continue feeding, then army crawled my way to capture their beauty.

My week in Mull has been a long time coming, having been postponed for two years due to Covid, the time finally arrived and I was able to head up North to the beautiful Inner Hebrides.

Many things must spring to mind when someone mentions the highlands and islands of Scotland, but blazing sunshine and beautiful blue skies are probably not up there with the most common.

Blessed with unbelievable weather, and panoramic views, my camera was glued to my hand, snapping away, trying to capture as much of the beauty as I could. One such view was this old boat laid resting on the grass of Loch Scridain at low tide, with Mull's only Munro - Ben More, standing superior in the background.

As the sun lit up the Magnolia tree in my garden this afternoon, I set up to further test my 1.4x converter on the frequent visitors. Dunnocks, robins and blue t**s all regularly showed their faces, but out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of my first black cap of the year.

Being called black caps you'd assume males and females would both have one, but it's only the males that don this smart black cap, females and juveniles both sport a brown cap, with male juveniles losing it after their first year, moulting in autumn and gaining black one instead.

Having recently received a Sony 1.4x teleconverter as part of a bursary, my 200-600mm has now become a 280-840mm equivalent.

This extra reach is going to be incredibly useful in my pursuit of wildlife photography and filmmaking. It will enable me to get 'closer' to the wildlife without having to get any closer. I decided to spend a few hours in the garden this afternoon and put it to the test and I managed to capture a species that has successfully evaded me and my camera... until now!

The beautiful long tailed tit!

RAZORBILL III

The cliffs are stunning at RSPB Bempton and can create dramatic images. Standing on the platforms along the reserve and searching for angles along the cliffs to capture the stunning wildlife can be a challenge, but always worth the time and effort.

Seeing this razorbill catching the light with the stark contrast to the chalk cliffs made for a great composition and image.

RAZORBILL II

A pair of razorbills sat atop the cliffs at Bempton catching the early morning light.

I love the feel that this shot gives, the monochromatic tones, the composition and the fact that there's not just one beautiful bird, but two of one of my favourite species.

RAZORBILL I

I don't know what it is about razorbills, but I absolutely love them.

For me, their monochromatic appearance demands a mini series. I love using black and white to highlight the simplicity of the beauty in the Natural World.

Armed with a sharp hooked bill, they are very apt at grabbing fish and defending themselves from anything that gets too close!

The 4am alarm went off, I rolled out of bed and I was on my way to for the first time this year.

As spring was only a few days away, the birds had already started to return in their numbers and I was so excited to get there and start photographing and filming the wildlife that can be found there.

Sunrise was something special and as the cliffs warmed with the morning sun, opportunities to capture the species in all their beauty starting to present themselves nicely. I give you the stunning Common Guillemot.

I used to judge a wildlife reserve off the photography opportunities, and I think to some degree I still do. I think that may be why Bempton Cliffs RSPB holds top spot for me.

I find that the birds at wetlands and similar reserves tend to be quite distant and not always the easiest to photograph but I always like the challenge of composing shots with distant wildlife.

Having originally only seen these black necked grebes from a distance, it was such an experience when they came swimming down one of the smaller channels, allowing me to grab a shot when they came into a gap between the reeds.

When people think about Costa Rican wildlife, I'm sure they think of bright and colourful birds, maybe elusive mammals or beautiful frogs, but insects probably don't spring to mind immediately.

I was walking up a road searching for you guessed it, bright and beautiful birds, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted something on a street lamp. I walked over to investigate and it was this fella, a praying mantis looking absolutely stupendous, I just had to get some snaps. I hope you like this one.

I knew Costa Rica was going to be very special, abundant with spectacular wildlife and it did not disappoint!

Just a little walk around the grounds of Mawamba Lodge in Tortuguero led me to this stunning green iguana relaxing on the side of this tree after the heavens opened and served us our fair share of torrential rain.

Disclaimer, I have retouched the image slightly in Photoshop, nothing too drastic - the iguana was there, don't worry.

It may seem strange to turn Costa Rican wildlife - typically beautifully coloured, black and white, but I find highlighting simplicity can be extremely powerful in a different way.

This keel billed toucan, perched high up in a tree worked perfectly for what I wanted to capture.

The iconic Robin Redbreast - beautifully melodic, always inquisitive and a British favourite, but a bird with a dark side.

Robins can be ruthlessly territorial and defensive, with research finding that 10% of male Robin deaths are caused by fights with other males, where feet and beaks can be used to peck at the neck in an attempt to severe the spinal cord.

A dark side you may never know about when these little balls of character pose for your camera.

Another outing with my camera today took me to a very very windy St Aidan's RSPB reserve. There wasn't a great deal about and it was surprisingly hard to hold a 600mm lens still, but I persevered and came a way with a few images I'm happy with.

But at the end of the walk, shielded by the steep sided bank, I was able to capture this little fella, a male stonechat a top a branch, catching the sunlight so well that his orangey breast became beautifully lit up like a summer's evening sunset.