American Kestral Eating

[Dave Spates]

American Kestral eating a rodent at a park in Denver, Colorado
Handheld, laying down belly flat in goose poop, midday,
Nikon d7000, nikkor 300mm af-s f/4
Auto ISO 180, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/1250

[gail bisson]

Welcome to BPN Dave.
A terrific behavior / action shot.
You have a great low POV giving you a nice clean BG.
You say you were shooting in midday sun but the light looks quite good here.
I have to say that your signature/logo is HUGE and very distracting to the viewer for critiquing.
It is so easy to be an armchair critic but when I look at your techs I would have gone to an ISO of 800 to allow me a higher aperture of 8 to get more DOF . You did well to get the rodent and most of kestrel nice and sharp. Is this a big crop?
A solid, amazing behavior shot. Well done,
Gail

[Bret Goddard]

I agree on the signature, other than that, beautiful. A nice size meal too! Grand job.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Superb image Dave, I like the POV and the behaviour you have captured. Well done. I have to agree with Gail reg your watermark though. I will be visiting Denver in the 3rd week of march. Any tips on birding in & around Denver?
thanks,
Sanjeev

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the low angle, sharpness, behaviour and details. Composition wise I would have the Kestrel more to our left but that is my personal preference. Well done and welcome to BPN.

[Dave Spates]

Thank you for the critiques I'll work on the watermark :)

Superb image Dave, I like the POV and the behaviour you have captured. Well done. I have to agree with Gail reg your watermark though. I will be visiting Denver in the 3rd week of march. Any tips on birding in & around Denver?
thanks,
Sanjeev

The places I usually go to are Barr Lake State Park, which many species of bird visits and a great place to photograph bald eagles, kestrals and red-tailed hawks. If you want to see Golden Eagles your best bet is Roxbourough state park, which also has Steller's Jay. Another favorite spot of mine is Red Rocks Aphitheatre trading post, there are bird feeders there with a lot of activity :)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Terrific opportunity you were handed here. Nice IQ, light looks good despite being midday. Nice low angle which gave you a great BG. Signature already noted.

A big welcome to BPN Dave!