American Beauty

[Loi Nguyen]

I have been absent from this forum for a couple of months. Too busy with work, not much to shoot locally during the Fall. Finally I managed to get up at 3:30AM on a Sunday morning and did a 2 hour drive to visit this Kestrel. Same location as the many excellent images that David Salem has posted of the same beauty queen. I was there early, so had the whole field to myself. The beauty queen began her preening ritual after a small snack for breakfast.

1DX
500f4 II + 2X III @ 1000mm
1/1000
F13
ISO-800
Beanbag over car window

Decided to crop tight to avoid distracting branch on the right.

Thank you for your comments. Hope I can get out to take some more images over the holiday and the new year.

Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, cracking detail, clarity and detail, nieces colours too, just too tight all round I feel, if you have it, then pull back on the crop and allow the subject to breathe. The distracting elements may not be as distracting as you may think??? This illustrates how good that 2x is now with the new generation of bodies & lenses.

Thought you would be 'hammering' that 400 :w3.

TFS
Steve

[Karl Egressy]

Such a beautiful bird, amazing details, it would deserve a little more canvas around, Loi.
I added some but might need more.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot excellent quality - prefer the looser crop. You have a few dust bunnies especially around the tail.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you Steve, Karl, and Jonathan. Here is a looser crop with the tree branch. It's not so distracting actually. Would like to hear comments from which version people prefer. I can add canvas for sure, but in general I avoid it unless as a last resort. Thank you. Loi

[David Salem]

Hi Loi, it was nice seeing you yesterday. Nice shot of her in the midst of preening and I like the perch and the BG. Yes it is to tight but I like the great DOF you got at this range. f13 covered her well. See ya soon

[Charlene Bacchioni]

Fantastic detail Loi ,glad to see you posting again.

[Lorant Voros]

Super nice IQ, nice light, perfect DOF and an interesting pose. I feel the OP is a bit tight, but I understand your point of view about adding canvas. TFS.