Kestrel Cupra Maritima, Le Marche Italia

[Chuck Naughton]

I caught the following images last July. This nesting pair of Kestrel's had 2 or 3 hungry mouths tucked inside (see 3rd photo). The nest is located in an old beam hole high up in the villa we rented fro the week. To get the best angle I could I set up and fully extended my tripod's center post on top of a meter wall. Equipment: Canon 20D with older EF 70-300mm 5.6 IS through a Kenko 1.4 teleconverter. I tried to play with the RAW file a bit. Cropped the image, a bit of color balance, exposure compensation, and a bit of sharpening. A bit limited in the equipment, but I was excited to capture these images.

Thought you all might appreciate this. What do you think?

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c186/tinotis/Falco%20Italia/IMG_8488.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c186/tinotis/Falco%20Italia/IMG_8489.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c186/tinotis/Falco%20Italia/IMG_8490.jpg

[Lance Peters]

Hi Chuck - a big warm welcome to the BPN family, a little bit of house keeping first, when you post a image please include all the shooting details including shutter speed and aperture - helps everyone see whats happening and in turn help you.

Also only post 1 image per thread - it is OK to repost that same image in the same thread after you have made changes to it based on the advice given.

Love the action - can see why you would be excited!!
From a purely technical standpoint - there are a number of issues with all three of these images....

The steep shooting angle
Wings/ body parts clipped
Angle of the light

I would recommend you get Arties book - "The art of bird Photography II" there is a ton of information in there, also the educational resources forum will also be of assistance.

Looking forward to seeing more :)

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Chuck,
A big warm welcome to out BPN family. I totally agree with Mr. Peters' sound advise. The main thing that catches my eyes are the clipped body parts...just keep on practicing...looking forward to your next one...:cool: