Peregrine Breakfast

[Allen Sklar]

Came upon this falcon on the beach one day, obviously recently banded and painted. I drove a wide circle around the bird shooting from all angles, it was still there when I drove away. While the "sunny" side shots were very good, this "into the sun" image has the facial expression I wanted to capture. The crop (about 50 %) was also difficult as there is a large clump of disturbed sand to the right. Love the feather in the mouth which served as a convenient white point. I welcome all comments.

1/800, f 10, ISO 200

http://www.assateaguephotos.com/photos/i-KThncLh/0/XL/i-KThncLh-XL.jpg

[Colin Driscoll]

Interesting capture. At first I thought that the paint was blood from the victim. I've had a look at the embedded info and see you used a D300 and a lens at 170 mm, which lens?

[arash_hazeghi]

love the prey and pose. sharp details. too bad the sun was on the wrong side

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the action and feeding behaviour you got here, but I do wish you had the right light angle for this pose that you wanted. A couple of dark spots above that I'd get rid of. Great encounter, I hope you had many keepers out of this!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

agree with others about light angle. Pose is awesome. so are the details. I liked the subject placement as well. Not sure what BG you'd have got if you had gone very low. I'd have explored that.

Please post the camera and the lens details. Thx.

[Allen Sklar]

Sorry for the missing data. Camera was D-300, Lens 23 year old 80-200 2.8 (the push pull one). I would have LOVED to get lower but didn't want to get out of my truck and possibly disturb or spook the bird. The first images of the bird were directly into the sun and improved as I drove 360 degrees around it, however this one had the mouth open with expression. Wind was about 16 mph, obscuring the bird with blowing sand at times. Probably the closest I'll ever be to such a magnificent bird sitting still, my heart was pounding the entire shoot.......