Merlin Fanning Its Tail.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This beautiful little raptor was a daily visitor for a few weeks early this winter near a local feeding station, and pretty much decimated the Mourning Dove population at that spot. I was hoping to see it during one of the very few days I have for photography, so I was pleased when early one weekend morning it showed up on some frosted birch branches and spread its tail feathers after a round of preening. A bit steeper than I prefer, but I'll take it!

Canon R6 + 100-400L II + 1.4TC III @560mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/500s., f/8, ISO 3200, full-frame, minor cleanup, deeper contrast and saturation to taste to bring the dull raw file to life.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

The tail flare and raised foot add interest, and the diagonal branches work well. Perhaps a bit too much negative space on the right side. Tried a more squarish crop, might work. The strong diagonal lines still worked with the more square crop.

Cheers

Randy

[Kurt Bowman]

Lovely frame you have here! Love the fanned out tail feathers, the snowy perch and the diagonal branches really make the comp work well. I actually like the negative space here and think it looks better than the squarish crop would. Really nice work!

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

I should have seen it from the beginning! A high key bird landscape shot. My bad:bg3:

Randy

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Dan, I really like the image. The snow scene is something I don't see here. The fanned tail adds interest, as always the techs look spot on. Thank you for sharing.