"The Deck Feather"

[David Salem]

First off, I hope everyone had a great Holiday season and a Happy New Year!! Look forward to all of your great posts in the coming year!!

This is another Kestrel that I had the privilege of getting to work with last year. She showed up in September and is still here now. After a period of time she has become very tolerant of me and my truck and lets me get pretty close without a care in the world. This was taken in September when she was just finishing up her annual molt as seen by the last top tail feather, known as the "the deck feather" still coming in. The other tail feathers are wet because she was hunting dragonflies over the water and dragging her tail in the water as she caught them. I really like the wing position in this frame. Hope you like it.

1DX---840mm---f6.3---ss1/3200---ISO800---HH from truck@8:15am---35% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.

David

[Loi Nguyen]

Wow, David, beautiful outstretched pose of the wing and tail feathers. She even looked back too and gave you great eye contact. Lovely. Loi


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[David Salem]

Thanks Loi, I hope you got some good frames of her yesterday, the light was perfect!!

[Loi Nguyen]

Yes I did, but no flight. I missed the focus and the head was a bit soft. Too slow I guess. Need to learn from you how to shoot from a car and bean bag. Loi


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[Tiago Caravana]

Great and unusual pose as Loi mentioned. The clean BG and the positioning are also a plus here. Nice work!

[David Salem]

Loi, next time you come out you need to ride with me for the morning and I am more than happy to give you some tips.
It has more to do with understanding the birds behavior than understanding your gear, although some of the settings that I mentioned to you will help.

[arash_hazeghi]

wish this frame was mine Dave! you make people jealous! love the head turn and all the feather details. is the specks around the eye some reflection or JPEG artifacts?

cheers,

Arash

[David Salem]

Thanks Arash. Not trying to make anyone jealous, just trying get out there and get some decent shots like everyone else, but thanks for the complement. I appreciate it. I just looked at the edited TIFF file and they are in there, so they must be some small reflections.

[dankearl]

This is the coolest pose I have ever seen of this little raptor....
Over the top, David.
Coming to Riverside maybe Feb on way to Mexico, maybe contact you?
Meet at Tio's Taco for a cold one......

[keith mitchell]

David jealous in the nicest possible way, could look all day and not find a nit with this superb image.

Keith.

[shane shacaluga]

Beautiful back pose and very sharp. Lovely spread of the tail and BG is very nice too

TFS

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent wing position and sharp details, David.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Thanks for the nice wishes - wishing you the same, david!

I absolutely love the clear, clean feather detail and the nice look-back. Add a perfect BG and you have a perfect result! Well done on this one!

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent image. Great look back pose with superb wing position and fanned tail feathers.
Beautiful color pallet and very nice composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[John Robinson]

All been said David.
Superb image ! You have so much choice over there.
Well done .
John

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the wing/tail position, IQ, look back, details, composition and complimentary BG. Hope your Holidays were great. Excellent image David!

[Bill Dix]

Count me among the jealous ones. Wonderful, unique pose, great light and bg, and your usual superb techs. And thanks for the feather info.

[gail bisson]

What I like the best about this image is that it inspires and motivates me to "up my game!"
All been said. perfect pose, IQ, detail, light etc etc,
Gail

[David Salem]

Thanks so much everyone for the comments.

Dan, I love Tio's tacos! It would be great to meet. Let me know.

[Shawn Zierman]

Fantastic pose! Maximum tail flare and sweeeet head turn...,light quality is so nice....Quality, and I agree with every compliment.

[Ivan Ellison]

Enough said by the above. A stunning shot, love everything about it, the bg colour compliments the bird well.

[Moe Ali]

I love those tail feathers, they are beautifully displayed in that lighting,... as well as your fantastic explanation of the situation.

Like everyone else I just want to say..... Man oh Man what a shot!!

[WillieHall]

Its all been said, appreciate the molting info. I always like the tidbits of info people add and try to do the same myself....inspirational image!

[Bob Smith]

Some images are like a diamond sitting on a bed of velvet--everything perfect---and this is one of them. Great job David.

[Robert Kimbrell]

Happy New year David. That's a shot to start the year. It's just lovely, So fortunate you got that head turn, I think you were counting on it.

[annmpacheco]

Most gorgeous of all! Now I really know what to shoot for!

[David Salem]

Thanks again everyone!! I'm sure glad you liked it as it is one of my favorites from last year.

[Raybel Robles]

This is a beauty of an image! The over the shoulder pose in midflight! What else can you ask for top top image.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Beautiful! Sharpness, head turn, BG perfect, I also like a lot the overall colour tones.

[Joe Subolefsky]

BEAUTIFUL.

[David Salem]

Thanks again everyone.