Into the glare

This is the opposite of a portrait. The bird is tiny, the sky is enormous, and the sun is somewhere just out of frame turning the whole thing to white. I could barely see the kite with my eyes. The camera saw it fine.

Brahminy Kites circle like this for hours over water, tilting on the thermals, hardly ever flapping. From below they are a chestnut body and white head; from this far away they are a shape, and the shape is enough to know what it is.

I kept it because of the emptiness. Most bird photographs try to fill the frame. This one tries the other thing.