My First Merlin

[Loi Nguyen]

Thanks to David Salem and Glenn Conlant who invited me to tag along on yesterday morning, I was able to see and capture my first images of a beautiful Merlin. I'm not going to risk being judged by the standards that apply to the same bird that Arash, David, and Glenn posted, so I will go for a perched shot in a multi color BG. This is a FF. I debated about cropping or not cropping and decided to leave it as full frame. I enjoy seeing the multi-color near the top. The light was slightly off angle, but I decided to scarify the light angle for the BG.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/4000
f5.6
ISO-1250
HH from car

Appreciate your comments.

Loi

[Enrique Patino]

Great work Loi!

[keith mitchell]

Just a personal thing Loi! but I might remove a tad off the top of that very nice b/g,the bird itself looks excellent, even to what looks like the remains of it's last feed on it's beak.

Keith.

[Iain Barker]

Great shot Loi. Good IQ and I like the way the light shining off its wing highlights the feathers. I like the crop as you have it but it would be just as good with a little off the top. I think it is just personal preference with this shot.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Fantastic species bathed in sweet light. Nice pose and sharpness. I would have given more room on bottom as tail is almost touching the frame.

[Bill Dix]

Congrats, Loi! A beautiful shot, with a background to die for. FF comp is fine for the reason you state, and a slightly cropped version would also work for me.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic BG, I can see why you want to keep it all in there...but I think a bit of a crop up there would still work. Great subject, congrats on your first one. I like the erect pose and the view of the talons. Although I usually let dof fall where it does I do wish for more of it for the perch in this case.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Great image, Loi. I agree with taking a bit off the top and you will still retain most of that lovely BG.



Geoffrey

[Jim Neiger]

Very nice, Loi! I like the head angle, perch, and bg. Maybe crop a little off the top.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone. Agreed that I can take a sliver off the top. Loi

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Loi! I like the pose, perch, details, sharpness and sweet BG. I too would take a little off the top.

[arash_hazeghi]

very cool! glad she is still around. I like the image but there is too much empty space on the top...

[David Salem]

Wow, another beauty Loi. Glad you got some nice frames on your visit and I'm glad you got some great frames of your first Merlin. She's becoming pretty popular on BPN. All looks great but I do agree about cropping from the top to just leave a little of the blue. See ya soon. Oh, thanks for lunch too.

[Satish Ranadive]

Marvelous !!

Regards,
Satish.