Mating Peregrine Falcon

[Loi Nguyen]

Found this mating pair of Peregrine Falcon on a ledge on the rock cliff in SoCal. It was a cloudy morning and the birds were in the shadow. The BG is the distant waves crashing over rock, may have a green cast here, but I decided to leave it as is. I wasn't so thrilled with the BG, so decided to crop tight, about 50% of the original frame.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III = 700mm
1/1600
f5.6
ISO-3200
Beanbag over ledge

Raw conversion in DPP, added 0.5EV exposure in DPP, Levels, Curves, Sharpen.

Looks like I will need to invest in flash and better beamer to shoot at this location. Distance is about may be 30 m. Appreciate any tips on flash for high speed continuous shooting if there is such thing.

Thank you

Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, a very lucky and cool sighting, big congratulation in achieving what you did.


Nice to see you pushing that ISO, it really does give you the opportunity now in getting those images you may not have preciously. Detail looks good too, it's great to see how far you have come in such a short time.

TFS
Steve

[keith mitchell]

Wonderful capture you have here Loi it really is good, well done being in the right place at the right time to get action like this, the bg is fine by me in fact the whole image certainly rocks my boat.

Keith.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - Congrats on an excellent behavioral shot. It held up to the high ISO and the large crop.

TFS,
Rachel

[Thomas Arbour]

Great behavior! I see the female has a visible band. Did you consider reporting it to the USGS bird banding lab?

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Loi, good 'action' captured, and what a great result with that high ISO. Im fine with the colour of the BG, but would add a touch to the RHS.

[eddyswan]

Fantastic capture, Loi. Great interaction and detail looks good for a big crop. I might add a little more room at the bottom.

[David Salem]

Wow Loi, great find and you did well capturing the moment. The detail looks good for the crop and the ISO. If this isnt too far from your house, you will have a great spot this spring.
Did you notice if they were starting a scrape in a specific spot? Nice work!

[gail bisson]

Simply awesome behavioral shot.
Love the green BG and clear view of both birds.
Well done,
Gail

[Holger Leyrer]

Excellent behavioral shot. I like the BG and sharpness.

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent behaviour image Loi! I like the sharpness, moment and clean BG.

[arash_hazeghi]

looks great, sharp details and a nice interaction. Flash is not going to help you here and you can't fire it off at 12fps.

[christopher galeski]

nice capture,sharp with nice details.well done.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone for your comments. Much appreciate it.

Loi

[Marina Scarr]

Terrific behavior action captured here, Loi. Flash would have been of little use here as Arash mentioned. I like the comp you chose. IT really shows off this pair well.