American Kestrel in the Rain

[Loi Nguyen]

I found this American Kestrel perching on a post at a community garden one late afternoon. The sun was partially out with soft sweet light when all of the sudden it started raining. I was able to capture a few images of the bird. 1/1000, f5.6, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1/3 EV. Focal length 700mm. I wished the background more green, but I was happy to have this image. I only cropped and adjusted the contrast, applied NR, boosted WB from 4500K to 6000K, and sharpedned the image a little bit in LR4.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Loi, a huge welcome to BPN, and a great subject to show off. The light is soft, and the colours look good. Although the perch is not ideal, it does have character of being weathered. In an ideal world, I would have placed the kestrel higher in the frame, as I find the kestrel a little low in the frame. But with the perch not the best, you have left enough to show it off. To 'change' the placement in the frame, you could take at least half off the top.

[Nick Palmieri]

Great exposure on the bird and the snow adds a lot of interest. I think if it were mine I may go a little tighter all around. TFS

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot.
Great background, nice pose, great comp, really like the rain to top this great image off.
Very well done.

[arash_hazeghi]

cool shot with good exposure details and the rain adds to the ambiance. you chose a good shutter speed to render the rain. I wish he had turned his head towards us a bit...TFS

[PhilCook]

Very nice and the rain adds a lot of mood, lovely color and some nice detail showing through, his profile stance also looks great....great image

[Bruce McKee]

A great find getting close to a cooperative Kestrel. Very nice soft lighting. I agree that cropping it a bit would help. I Love the shot.