American Kestral

Gallery: AvianPosted March 26, 2011280 views6 comments

Took a visit to LI last weekend and thanks to Luke Ormand was able to do some shooting at the EPCAL grasslands. Although most of my shots were horribly out of focus this one wasn't half bad. About a 60% crop and I wasn't sure where to leave more room so I opted for the side it was looking towards. The beak isn't deformed, that's a caterpillar in its mouth.

Larger image attached.

Canon7D, 500mm f/4.0 1/1600 at f/5.6 +2/3ev ISO 400.

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 26, 2011 at 3:27 PM

Cool to get this male with a caterpillar Hali. Your exposure looks good but I think the crop is showing, particularly with the amount of noise in the background. I would run some selective noise reduction on that.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on March 26, 2011 at 4:53 PM

Nice head turn and the bird stands out well from both the perch and sky, Hall. I agree with Nate about the need for some NR. It looks like that sun was pretty bright: maybe a little more contrast and exposure adjustment in post processing could bring out even more detail too. It's such a fine looking bird so well captured.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on March 26, 2011 at 6:33 PM

really like the setting here and the pose is good too, Hali. I agree that it shows the crop in some lack of detail and lots of bg noise, especially in the blue-green oof transition around the bird--I'm wondering if possibly you sharpened the whole image which enhanced the noise?

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on March 26, 2011 at 9:37 PM

I've tried to get close to this bird here, but no luck yet.
I like the way the bird's presenting with the look-back pose, good detail.
Might benefit from selective NR BG & some < exposure adjustment.
Great catch

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on March 27, 2011 at 11:10 AM

Pose and bg really bring out the amazing colors of this bird.

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 27, 2011 at 9:35 PM

A nice comp Hali. If this were mine I would bring down the exposure on the entire image and then work from there. NR on the BG would help as others have mentioned. These are tough birds to get close to. Keep working on them and you will get some stunners I am sure.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments