American Kestrel

[Raymond Lee]

Photographed in my car this spring, in south of Beaverhill Lake, which is located east of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Canon EOS 7D | Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS + Kenko 1.4x Teleplus PRO 300 DGX + Canon Extender EF 1.4x II
Manual mode, 1/1600 sec., f/8, ISO 640.

A natural perch would be nice, but this Kestrel posed quite nicely for about 10 seconds or so before it took off. The cropping was made such that the wires for the fence post were out of the frame to make it less "hands-of-man".

All C&Cs are welcome!

Thanks,
Raymond

[Dan Busby]

Raymond - that's pretty sweet IQ for that combination of extenders. Very nice exposure and lighting and a great look back. Yes, a more natural perch would be welcome but this species is so associated with man that I don't think the post hurts. Very nice.

[jack williamson]

Excellent IQ, the colors on the bird are awesome and I love the BG.

[dankearl]

An excellent photo of a bird that is very hard to get for me. I would love to have this.

[laurie golden]

Very colorful Kestrel, great exposure and he looks good with the background. I like the over the shoulder pose.

[PhilCook]

Certainly a lot more colorful than the Kestrels here....is that normal ?

Like the over the shoulder pose, very sharp and smooth backdrop.....that's one sweet bird Raymond

[Satish Ranadive]

Raymond:
Fabulous image.Great look back pose captured.
Love the pose,colors,great details,IQ and nice BG. I like the perch too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Raymond, good look back pose, and you have lovely colours on the Kestrel. A car always acts as a good blind, and the Kestrel pops so well from the BG. Yes, a better perch would have been first prize, but we cant control where they decide to perch. Good choice to crop up higher than the wire of the fence.

[Ivan Ellison]

Stunning bird. nice sharpness throughout and the colours are lovely. Great image for stacked conv,. I do not mind the post as if they are anything like our kestrels they are more often than not perched on such things.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, IQ, details and colours. Well done Raymond.