Merlin w/2 dragonflies
by David Haynes
Nikon D4s
600mm
No Teleconverter
1/3200
ISO 500
Manual Exposure
F/7.1
WB auto (with correction in post)
Shot on a Bean Bag from truck window
Cropped 55%
Processed in LR 5.7 and PSE9
Cloned large white area and a very small portion of a stub on the perch
This is the second image from the very cooperative Merlin I was able to shoot for a few days before it took up residence somewhere else. As I said in my last post this Merlin frequently hunted dragonflies (and birds)and more often than not she came back with at least two in her talons. Seems to me the dragonflies were likely mating, attached to each other while flying slowly, when the Merlin would blast off the perch, nab them in mid air and come back to one of several perches that she used. She would occasionally fly 100 yards or more to grab the dragonflies proving what excellent vision they have.
I believe this image was taken around mid December a couple weeks ago.
In this image she has already eaten the head off of one of the two dragonflies and gave me a pretty decent head turn. Because of your recommendations on my last post I chose to clone out the white blob above the head and to the right of the Merlin.
Hope you like this one. Larger image for a better look. Thanks
Comments
18 commentsBill
there is everything to love about this photo. It is spectacular. The dragonflies are killer.
Everything works perfectly. Very beautiful.
I'm curious that no one else mentioned this so I'm thinking the issue may be on my end, but on the larger version the face, especially the area around and including her right eye (left side to viewer), seems a bit "crunchy" (slightly oversharpened) on my monitor. I'm betting it's perfect on a higher resolution screen, so you've probably done it right for the new generation of screens. I'm on 1920px. Just thought I'd mention it in case it was worth a second look for you.
Exceptional!
Definitely a winner!
Big congrats on the 2014 Avian win too -
Sure glad you're able to get out and shoot again,
Sandy
Albert Darmo
Canada
TFS
Steve