American Kestrel

[David Salem]

This is a shot of Lady Kestrel from this year. This is one of my favorite raptor poses as they stop for a second to look at you while they're preening their tail. It is also one of my favorite static shots of her too. Hope you like it.

1DX---840mm---f7.1---ss1/2500th---ISO640---HH from truck@8:15am---35% crop

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

David

[Tim Foltz]

Dave, another one of your patented kestrel shots, creamy BG, nice perch, HA, catchlight and details.

-Tim

[keith mitchell]

David Tim as covered most of my thoughts on this excellent image,can't be far short of perfect.

Keith.

[Ian McLachlan]

All of the above, and that foot just holding her perfectly balanced with beautiful colouring. .I''m trying to remember the perch; anyway its great. These Kestrels have that gleam on the back. Is it oil or reflection.
Ian

[Michael Thompson]

awesome pose with the looking back and the tail feather display, perfect lighting, sharpness, great perch and background

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Glad you like the frame.

[David Salem]

All of the above, and that foot just holding her perfectly balanced with beautiful colouring. .I''m trying to remember the perch; anyway its great. These Kestrels have that gleam on the back. Is it oil or reflection.
Ian

Thanks Ian,

I am pretty sure that it's the reflection of the sun from the sheen of the feathers on her back you are seeing.

It's a new perch, cool huh!

[Jonathan Ashton]

David this is outstanding she is one sassy little lady with that pose!
I like the presentation as is but purely from my viewpoint I feel it would be better if the image was not clipped, albeit very slightly. I feel lowering the brightest highlights and lifting the very darkest shadows would make this amazing image even better. I appreciate you may well disagree as will others, I am getting the impression that in general over in the USA you prefer brighter images to some folks over here.

[Joe Subolefsky]

Beautiful bird and shot no nits for me.

[Bill Dix]

Sweet! Light, pose, perch and background all superb, and of course your usual fine techs. Thanks for sharing it.

[Glenn Conlan]

She has given us many great images, this is the one where she shows her nicely preened feathers. Well done

[William Dickson]

No nits here David. If I ever get a shot like that before I die, I would die happy. :S3: The head is my favourite part of the image.

Well done

Will

[David Salem]

Thanks for the commnts everyone.

[David Salem]

David this is outstanding she is one sassy little lady with that pose!
I like the presentation as is but purely from my viewpoint I feel it would be better if the image was not clipped, albeit very slightly. I feel lowering the brightest highlights and lifting the very darkest shadows would make this amazing image even better. I appreciate you may well disagree as will others, I am getting the impression that in general over in the USA you prefer brighter images to some folks over here.

Thanks Jonathan, I always appreciate your input.
Just got home and looked close at the image and at least on my monitor it looks about perfect. Nothing is clipped and it looks pretty well saturated and has good details in the darks.

Not sure if you monitor is just a little on the bright side and is giving some of these images little brighter look to them or if it is the fact that I shoot in bright sunny conditions most of the time and you guys in the UK shoot in overcast conditions most of the time. As you mentioned it might just be personal preference or something you've become accustomed to looking at, as I have also

Maybe I will brighten my monitor up a little bit when I look at your stuff and you can dim yours down a little when you look at mine:w3

Thanks again

[Isaac Grant]

Don't know how you could make this better. Details, pose, that perch, the amazing background and all in perfect light. Just excellent.

[Raybel Robles]

Superb details! the image looks fine to me, a bit bright just but is just how it suppose to be on a sunny day.

[Marina Scarr]

A stunning pose with a great perch and BG as well. Did you have to do any perch clean up?

[David Salem]

A stunning pose with a great perch and BG as well. Did you have to do any perch clean up?

You got me wondering too but unfortunately when I stopped by the house I looked at the original file and found that I did have to clean up some whitewash on the perch.

Thanks Marina

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dave, the light in this is exceptional, which in turn has brought the IQ, detail and colours so well. Great DOF throughout the frame, and you certainly the sharpness. Gotta love that BG too. A fine image, and well captured.