New lady kestrel

[arash_hazeghi]

Portrait of the American kestrel (female) from SoCal with Dave Salem. This is a new lady kestrel which seems to have taken the place of the old resident lady


image made with my D5 and 500mm f/5.6 PF + TC14-E III ISO 1250 f/8 at 1/3200 sec hand held from vehicle processed with C1P 12 hope you like it

[Ian McLachlan]

Lovely .She' in great order as well .A question. Would you expect more or less detail with the D500 with no teleconverter for this shot which would be at 750mm equiv. but at 5.6 or 6.3 or f8 or whatever you choose. And if she flew would the d500 follow focus better than an 850 had you had it on.We know that the D5 seems to still be the ring leader in the follow focus business.Thanks for your help to so many of us over the years.

[David Roach]

Just another Arash classic. Looks like the light was just getting harsh and you handled it well. TFS

[Aditya Sridhar]

Superb shot, Arash. Love the way the bird is perched. Great detail and HA - nice to see the beak against the lighter neck feathers. No real nits from me, although maybe a few points of Blacks to the image might make the bird pop out a little bit more.

[Randy Stout]

Arash:

Very well done. Like the framing with the bird working the diagonal, simple perch, soft background, head angle and catchlight.

Cheers

Randy

[gail bisson]

She sure is "purty"!
Classic Dave Salem BG!
Image is lovely.
Love the IQ and the pose and the vertical comp. Agree with Aditya re: adding a bit of black to the neutrals in Selective Coloring.
Gail

[Mike Poole]

A beauty for sure - lets hope she is plentiful with her photo opportunities. I agree with a little more blacks, especially on the wings, but all else looks just about perfect

Mike

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks guys, the kestrel wings aren't quite black (very dark brown) the reference black point is the eye here.

[arash_hazeghi]

Lovely .She' in great order as well .A question. Would you expect more or less detail with the D500 with no teleconverter for this shot which would be at 750mm equiv. but at 5.6 or 6.3 or f8 or whatever you choose. And if she flew would the d500 follow focus better than an 850 had you had it on.We know that the D5 seems to still be the ring leader in the follow focus business.Thanks for your help to so many of us over the years.

Hey Ian, I actually have a photo of the same bird taken with the D850 and bare lens, I will post that later to see if you can tell any difference. The D500 and 500PF work quite well, the difference is not really in focus but the buffer, the 850's buffer will fill up much faster than the 500 and that would be the kiss of death for 850. For kestrel taking off I'd use the D5 which is what I had here, she did not give us a flight opportunity

Cheers

[Ian McLachlan]

Yes Arash thanks for that . I knew you would be waiting for the take off with the d5. Pity she didn't oblige. Look forward to you posting the 850 image .Perhaps you could put them up together and ask us which is which!

[John Mack]

Nice view of this kestrel. Killer background. The light is nice as well.