American Kestrel

[David Salem]

Caught this handsome male Kestrel last winter as he flew by me after leaving a post. This is a unrelated bird to the two cooperative ones I had been shooting for some time last year. This guy was sitting on a post eating an insect as we slowly inched the truck forward. I moved the truck a few feet at a time, only when his head was down eating, and before to long we were within range. Hope you like it, Its one of my favorites.

1DMkIV---700mm---f6.3---ss1/3200---ISO640---HH from truck@ 7:20am---40% crop

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

David

[Joe Subolefsky]

Really nice considering the heavy crop. Love the head,wing position and eye contact!

[Satish Ranadive]

Spectacular flight pose with superb head turn, beautiful colors, nice BG and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[vishaljadhav]

Wonderful image David,
Technique worked very well of the approach, cars usually make the best hide
i love the colours and the nice BG
the head turn is what makes it very special to me .
love it

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Fabulous image David, great HA, awesome colors, super BG. It's a terrific flight shot of the Kestrel, well done.

[David Salem]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I appreciate it.

[stuart wanuck]

Difficult to catch them in flight nice image

[Stu Bowie]

Hi David, great eye contact and love the detail on the far wing. These fast fliers cant be easy to capture in full flight, but you seem to nail them all the time. Killer BG too.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi David nice work to get them in flight with killer BKG and very nice colors, IQ holds for large crop :cheers:.

TFS Andreas

[MiroslavMaric]

Hi David. This flight pose rocks for sure! BG color is well balanced with the color of the bird. Congratulations for this 'high speed' shot! Cheers! Miro

[Munish Kaushik]

Loved the flight posture, head turn & some awesome colors there. BG complements the entire frame. I wish if it wasn't heavily cropped but I understand your challenges.

Regards,
Munish Kaushik

[gail bisson]

Hi Dave,
I really like the head angle on this one and the topside view. The BG at "your spot" is always beautiful.
The way the tail feathers are splayed is unusual as well.
I do find that the IQ is not as awesome as your usual standard ( mostly head area) and I find myself wishing that the near wing was more extended.
I know I am being super picky here but you are your own worst enemy because you have set the bar so high!!:t3
Gail

[Shawn Zierman]

Excellent top side view of this species. The flight pose really suggests "speed" to me, which is of course appropriate for a falcon :) Since the background is so clean, one option is to show the bird smaller in the frame, and you would gain some IQ back on the bird. Though undoubtedly, if you did that, someone else would suggest to crop tighter for web presentation...so... :)

[adrian dancy]

I note what Shawn says and I agree:). I would also try to minimise the NR around the bird's rictal bristles and head. I love the sideways look and the flight shape of the bird.

[Robert Kimbrell]

What a beautiful background, It works so well with this bird,a very 3-D look. Great rich colors on this bird.

[Marina Scarr]

Killer pose on this one, David. My thoughts pretty much mimic Gail's critique/comments.

[David Salem]

Thanks again everyone for the comments.

Critical focus was on the far wing and not the head. I like the pose , the color and the background enough that I decided to work the head and sharpened and add detail as much as I could without getting too crunchy. I guess I could crop it a little wider and it may be a bit more acceptable but I still like the shot allot.
Glad you guys and gals did too. Thanks.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Dave, love the sweet light and look back. I think this image has more potential in post processing department

great work

[Carl Walker]

Great wing position and HA. super smooth BG - I too like this image. I would be very happy with this shot. Excellent:S3:

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Very nice and unique pose with the splayed tail the slight bank and the head turn. Rich colors and lovely BG. You couldn't have timed this shot any better Dave. Nice work.

[Jonathan Ashton]

What a magnificent image very eye catching, the image is very well focused and the colours are superb but the detail in the plumage isn't quite there having said that I really do think it is a rather special image. I would love to see a repost bearing in mind the suggestions offered.

[Richard Flack]

Hi Dave, super image. Just the flight pose, awesome colours and eye contact make this a real keeper. If it was mine, I would be tempted to give it a bit more space (as this will give some IQ back to the head). Otherwise it really rocks! :)