Big Day Out - First Day Out of the Nest

I photographed this fledgling Nankeen Kestrel on the North West Coast of Western Australian. On previous days, I had watched him in the nest (an old pipe sitting under an Osprey nest. His mother had been busy catching lizards and in between he would flex his wings and practice for that first drop. On this day I found him on the ground after seeing that the nest was empty.

I have cropped to a square format as it seemed to work for this composition. I didn't go too tight as I like the OOF tones of the grass land behind. Some of the twigs are a bit distracting and could use some work.

Shot details are Nikon D200 300 F2.8 VR lens handheld. 1/1000 @ f7.1, 320 ISO. Shutter priority - single area focus.

Pam,

You really did well here in my opinion. The colors and composition are terrific. The technicals look really good also (sharp, good exposure). A couple little twigs I wish were not there but I would leave this as is, you have a superb image here! That said I am sure there will be someone who finds something they would like to change. That is why they have more than one judge in a contest! ;)

Keep up the good work!!

Pam, normally I would like the bird to the right more but in this case I rather have the stick full as you have them Otherwise they would look "clipped" About the only thing you could do different and it is taste basically Crop some from the top down half way down the strip? Will reduce the empty space in a direction the bird is not looking

Fine image and I like it a lot !!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Al Forns

About the only thing you could do different and it is taste basically Crop some from the top down half way down the strip? Will reduce the empty space in a direction the bird is not looking !

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Now that I look again that is a perfect suggestion!!

Pam as you look at your image, use the slider on the right hand side of the screen to slide the window to make the crop and you can see what Al suggested. Makes the little branch go straight to the top and a stronger image.

It looks great and I agree with Al's crop suggestion.

You did very well with this image...beautiful! Alfred shared a great cropping suggestion that I think helps a lot. When composing this image in the field, I would have tried to look for an angle without the OOF stick in the foreground (the in focus sticks look fine to me). Sometimes such an angle is simply not there or you don't have the time or ability to move around...you just have to create the image. Very nice work!

Thank you all for your comments. I have recropped (and hopefully interpreted correctly). My husband is a bit of a dinosaur as he used to work in 120 film and likes the square format.

Cheers,

Pam