Attitude !

[PhilCook]

Australian Hobby, second only in speed to the Peregrine Falcon, and generally feeds by snatching other birds on the wing, common throughout all of Australia in suburbia and rural regions...apparently ?..although I've only ever seen them 2 or 3 times that I know of.

Terrible wintry skies sadly, but like the intense stare which is the nasty bitey killer bird interpretation of " get lost "

Nikon D300 + Tokina 300mm.....300mm, f5.6, ISO 320, -1.7EV, 1/250, flash fired, hand held at a distance of around 25 ft/7.5 mtrs

[Randy Stout]

Phil:

the bird is excellent, sharp, well exposed great stare,nice feather detail. Good catchlights.

The high contrast areas of trees and sky in BG are a bit distracting.

Perch a bit busy, but the stare really makes the photo.

Cheers

Randy

[laurie golden]

Absolutely beautiful bird (and stare) on an interesting branch. I do agree that it would be better with a blue sky background.

[Nancy Bell]

I agree completely that the feather detail and stare are superb. If you are not adverse to a little manipulation you might try making the bkgd entirely whitish and thus removing the distracting elements.

[Jeff Dyck]

What a gorgeous little falcon. I love the intensity of that "get lost" stare! I agree with Randy that the perch is a pretty busy and quite dominant in the frame. I might consider looking at a "high key" type treatment of the background (only) to better seperate the bird from the foliage.

[PhilCook]

Taa for looking and commenting...I'm often in two minds about how much PS work to do on an image, { so many differing opinions on this subject } I was thinking about altering the background as I agree it is not as nice as it could be, but I struggle with the ideals of how much PS'ing is OK or too much. Just personal opinions I know, but in this I decided to leave as is but could go either way depending on whose looking at the image and thier thoughts. hehehehe.....I think sometimes I need to flip a coin lol lol

Thanks people

[Ken Watkins]

Phil,

The bird itself is remarkably good in fact perfect. The BG is a bit of a nuisance but I will ignore it

[Ofer Levy]

I love this!

[David Salem]

Very nice image. I dont mind the BG too much although some more uniform one would have been nice. Gotta be happy with what you get. Awesome feather detail and the direct stare is captivating.

David

[christopher galeski]

love this Phil,sharp and good detail,BG does not bother me,the bird holds my attention.well done.

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely plumage textures and eye contact, Phil. I like the perch textures but would mask the sharpening from them. Agree that it would work well with an all white BG, but then I like high key images. Not clear on the -1,7 EC - I would have though some plus EC would have been needed with that bright BG to get the best exposure on the darker bird. Great result though.

[Melissa Groo]

Beautiful portrait, excellent IQ. I don't mind the BG so much. Great intent stare on you!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Phil, great eye contact here, and I really like the feather detail and colours. Just wish you had a more uniform BG, but as we all know, cant help where our feathered friends decide to perch.

[arash_hazeghi]

The falcon is great with intense eye contact and great details. the perch is a bit distracting as noted. overall a great shot

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the eye contact, sharpness and detail. Well done Phil!

[june skywell]

Lovely pose. It may have had generous amounts of S/H applied. The plumage looks quite washed out and normally they appear much richer brown in color.