"Touch Down"

[David Salem]

This is the female Kestrel that we fondly call lady Kestrel. She was a bird that after a period of time let me get close to her as she feed in a small field for more than two months. She was there like clockwork every evening and enabled me and my friend Glenn to get some great shots of her in lots of different poses and with many different prey items. She left the spot a few months ago and I have only seen her back there one time for a few minutes. The hunting conditions changed and she is off to greener pastures. I hope too see her back there again. Here she has just missed catching an insect and is coming back to the perch as I caught her touching down. As you can see, she is feather perfect.

1DMkIV---700mm---f7.1---ss1/3200---ISO640---HH from truck@ 3:45pm---30% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.

David

[christopher galeski]

very nice image,sharp with good detail,nice landing pose and good BG.well done.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A very eye catching image love the pose and the colours. I would be hesitant to offer any suggestions, it looks superb to me, however you may wish to consider reducing the crop size a little, the bird is quite large in the frame.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent timing, nice wing position and nice fanned tails captured, David.

[David Salem]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Jonathan, thanks. I cropped this one pretty tight to concentrate on the feather details.
I do have a few looser comps, I may post later.

[Rob Melone]

It's a beautful landing shot David! Love the wing spread and tail fan, it's nicely exposed, sharp and with a complimentary background.

[keith mitchell]

David hope she soon returns for you, the cropping is fine for me showing lots of cracking detail.

[Gabriela Plesea]

What stunning detail you have here, David! Lovely landing pose, "feather perfect" as you put it, in fact "picture perfect"! I like this tight crop, no loss of IQ whatsoever, great exposure as always:w3

Kind regards,

[Shawn Zierman]

Absolute perfection imo, and the title goes right along with that opinion. I'd say touchdown and a 2 point conversion here. The lighting is so good, virtually no deep shadows with a complex action pose....awesome.

[Doug Brown]

Stunning David! A perfect pose with an equally perfect light angle. Sharpness is excellent. And the is just right.

[Bill Dix]

Absolutely stunning. Pose is perfect with respect to light angle and your position. Detail is fabulous. A beautiful specimen. For some images I might have questioned the tight crop but think it works splendidly here. Love it.

[gail bisson]

:5
Wow! Love it!
Gail

[Grace Scalzo]

A real cracker-jack image, David . Perfect in every way. Congratulations .

[Jim Crosswell]

Amazing image David! I like the fanned tail, IQ, complimentary BG and tight composition.

[Enrique Patino]

great image David

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

David this is a stricking image!
Those fine details, light and pose makes for a super interesting image. TFS!

[Raymond Lee]

Love the image the way it is!

[David Salem]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I appreciate it.

[Loi Nguyen]

Perfect landing pose of a female kestrel. No suggestion from me! Loi

[Satish Ranadive]

Marvelous landing pose in beautiful lights. I like the wing spread,fanned tail feathers with symmetrical dark lines on them.
Love the IQ and tight composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[arash_hazeghi]

Oh man this is a killer frame! prefect in every way

[Mervyn Marsh]

Hey David, very nice photo.. the feathers on this lady are just fantastic..
Cheers,
Merv

[Sidharth Kodikal]

What an amazingly beautiful image, Dave! The pose couldn't get any better. Killer light, IQ, eye contact and not a shadow to be seen. A huge winner!

[Daniel Cadieux]

David, I have nothing to add here as this is a perfect image in my books too. Very memorable. Congrats!!

[Robert Kimbrell]

Exceptional, hard to find a better pose.

[Holger Leyrer]

Hi David,

all is said to this fantastic image. This is really a top hot. Congratulation :S3:

[Michael F Milligan]

Really very nice indeed!

[Frank Schauf]

Fantastic. Wonderful pose, colors and background.

[David Salem]

Thanks for taking] the time to comment everyone. I appreciate it.

[Marina Scarr]

Killer landing pose and light. It's quite the unique pose with a killer BG. The crop works for me which is not to say that a tad looser might not work as well.

[Missy Mandel]

Absolutely stunning David!

[Eric Dienesch]

What a great shoot, Congratulaitions !!
The right man at the right time on the right place !