American Kestrel with Dragonfly

[David Salem]

This is from almost a year ago when this handsome male Kestrel showed up at my local field. He only stayed for five days and he hunted dragonflies during the morning catching as many as 6-8 of these large insects in a few hours. I was fortunate to have timed his arrival right and was able to shoot him all five mornings. He was really cooperative because he was engrossed with hunting dragonflies and didn't mind our presence. As soon as he filled his crop up, he would't tolerate me being close to him any more.

1DX---840mm---f7.1---ss1/2500---ISO640---HH from my truck@7:45am---25% crop

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

David

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dave, excellent IQ here, and love the light. What a great pose and HA you managed, and you certainly nailed the overall detail and sharpness. His catch a bonus. A lovely smooth OOF BG to round the image off. If this were mine, I would maybe move the Kestrel just slightly over to the right a bit.

[Shawn Zierman]

Killer! Even the dragonfly looks good.... and it's dead :) It's hard to imagine a nicer image of the male. Perfect head angle, light angle, nice curving perch that has some character....a zinger of a frame sir. The only thing that looks slightly off to my eye is where the background green shows through right where the primaries meet the secondaries on the back...almost appears that the green is bleeding through the dark areas of the primaries....

[Geoff Newhouse]

Great look back HA...great perch...great prey...nice background...love the rich colours of the male kestrel.

TFS
Geoff

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Appreciate you taking the time.

Shawn, Thanks, I must have hit the clone tool on his back as I was evicting a few dust spots last night. I fixed it.

[gail bisson]

Always a treat to see that you have posted an image Dave.
Another killer image.
IQ and detail amazing.
I cannot find a thing I don't like about it.
Gail

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi David a really stunning frame !!
Lovely detail and overall well balanced tone / color contrast , the perch and the BG does work so well .
The prey is a nice touch ., Well done always a pleasure to look at your images .

TFS Andreas

[dankearl]

Nice, Dave, the perch is really nice, the bird feels a bit tight at the top....

[Ivan Ellison]

Super image David, really sharp throughout, nice pose and perch, the dragon fly justs adds the icing on the cake.

[David Salem]

Thanks so much everyone for the nice comments. I appreciate them.

Dan, Ya it might be a little tight on top but I wanted the perch to come out in the lower left corner and this version was cropped for print in a book so I dint change the comp for the web. Thanks as always

[Grace Scalzo]

What a great frame. Everything from the bird to the prey to the perch to the background is top notch. A bit more room up top wouldn't hurt.

[Grace Scalzo]

PS- Just read your explanation of the comp...gotcha.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Perfect light, perfect DOF, perfect look-back pose, perfect BG, perfect perch and a prey item to boot.
Checks all boxes and then some. Killer work Dave. I'm taking the first flight to SoCal the next time you get such a cooperative and good looking raptor!

[David Salem]

Thanks Grace!

Thanks Sid, I'm gonna call you so be ready. As you know very well, the window of opportunity can be very narrow but I'm hoping he shows up again this year. He has been here two years in row and was within a few days of each year.
Sep 23-26 has been his arrival dates and he only stayed about a week so keep your bags packed and be ready to have the flu in a few weeks The guest room is waiting.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Ha! I've put flu on my calendar for that week! Looking forward to it :)

[Derek Willcox]

David there is not much you can really say to improve this its just gorgeous great details nice colours and comp looks good too

[christopher galeski]

Its all been said,a great image,well done.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Dave
You're killing me with your wonderful raptor images. Just killing me, you hear?

Perfect!

Thanks for sharing

[David Salem]

Thanks again everyone for the nice comments. I'm glad you like the image.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image with wonderful IQ. Superb look back pose. beautiful colours, great details and nice composition.
Love the frame David.

Regards,
Satish.

[haseeb badar]

Hi David -- That is an exceptional frame , Excellent IQ and very nicely processed and framed , that catch is an add on here. loved it all the way . TFS !!