Morning Treat

[Ian Cassell]

I had to go to a satellite office to work today and it happens to be about 10 minutes from my usual birding spot (Gilbert Riparian Preserve). I set my clock early so could see what what was cooking at sunrise before I had to go to work. I was rewarded by a pair of Kestrels which I have rarely seen.

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
1/1600 sec f/7.1 ISO 400 HH

Near full frame. PP on my laptop at work. Levels and sharpening (now that I look again, maybe a touch too much sharpening) in CS6. NR on BG in Noiseware Pro

[John Chardine]

Hi Ian- This is a dynamic image. Very nice indeed. The bird is clearly pushing through the air, accelerating, and all this is shown with a still image- not bad! I like the colours too. I see a slight sharpening halo which could be easily corrected. Maybe a little more room to the right? I love it.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, John. Yes, I did this on my laptop at work (when I should have been doing other things) and missed the halo when I posted. You might be right about a bit more room needed on the right. It will be easy to do with that plain blue sky, so I'll try it.

[Kerry Perkins]

Ian, nice job - this is a wonderful image! Good thinking to open up the exposure a bit to get the blacks. It is always a treat to find the little kestrel and a job well done to get a flight shot. You could back off a bit on the sharpening. Super capture!

[Bob Miller]

Ian...love this! Wonderful! I love everything about it! At first i thought the sharpening was just fine but now that i look at it I can see that you might need to back off just a bit!

[Karen Forderer]

What an awesome photo! Very dramatic.

[arash_hazeghi]

this is great Ian, I like the dynamic pose better than the one you posted in avian. it is sharp too. you may want to run some NR to eliminate the noise in the BG... I only wish the sun was behind and above your left shoulder. more room to the right and less to the left is not bad either.

[Reza Gorji]

This is a phenomenal shot Amazing!!! Congratulations.

[ChrisCallahan]

Me gusta! Thanks for sharing and inspiring me!!!

[Corey Hayes]

Very nice shot.