Peek-a-boo Peregrine

[Matthew Jones]

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)
NSW, Australia

Canon EOS 1DX | Canon 500mm f4 II & 1.4 TC III | Handheld
1/4000 | f/5.6 | ISO 1600

Totally inspired by the amazing PF images posted here by Arash as well as others I headed to falcon country and spent four days searching and waiting among the cliffs for this one frame - hope you like it.

Canvas added to bottom. Minor adjustments to reduce glare on eye.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Like i? Naaa... love it! They don't come much better than this focus is spot on the pose could hardly be better DOF just about perfect background great. I am surprised you needed NR on the background.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent flight shot.

Regards,
Satish.

Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

[Richard Smith]

Very nice. I especially like the dynamic looking front wing.

[William Dickson]

Very well done Matthew. I love that HA and those talons. Lovely feather detail on the bird which blends perfectly with the BG. Not an easy bird to photograph, did you get anymore, love to see them.

Great work and thanks for sharing

Will

[Matthew Jones]

Like i? Naaa... love it! They don't come much better than this focus is spot on the pose could hardly be better DOF just about perfect background great. I am surprised you needed NR on the background.

Oops thanks for picking that up Jonathan. Actually no NR on this one, have corrected the reference, cheers.

[Matthew Jones]

Very well done Matthew. I love that HA and those talons. Lovely feather detail on the bird which blends perfectly with the BG. Not an easy bird to photograph, did you get anymore, love to see them.

Great work and thanks for sharing

Will

Thanks Will. Unfortunately this is the only sharp PF frame from the trip. Conditions were tough with a bright white skyline so the bird had to a. drop below that b. fly close enough in an ocean of airspace and c. camera had to retain focus lock which i struggled with. The other two in this sequence are progressively less sharp. I hope to try again with them in the next few weeks though.

[John Mack]

Really nice love the wing position.

[David Salem]

What a fantastic and unique frame of this Peregrine!! Not only did you get a Peregrine but you got the best looking Peregrine species, (peregrinus macropus) the Australian species. They have a very dark cap and beautiful heavy horizontal barring on the chest making them my favorite subspecies.
Sounds like you worked your butt off to get one good frame, but what a frame! The look back makes this one so nice along with the great look at the feet and underwing. The BG, details and comp all round this one off to be one of the better Peregrine frames I have seen in a while. Awesome work!!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Look at the size of those tucked-in talons! The look-back head angle save you here, and in a big way! Perfect BG too. Fantastic image.

BTW, good call and good work on the canvas extension.

[Brian Desjardins]

Just beautiful, all the detail is pure eye candy.

[Tim Foltz]

Matthew, The look saved the day, the look back really made the shot, very nice.

-Tim

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Matt, great inflight pose, and the look back pose/eye contact takes this up a few notches. Well exposed, nice and sharp, and thats a killer BG.

Sometimes, it only takes a single frame to make any trip worthwhile, even though we all wished we had nailed more shots.

[Matthew Jones]

Thank you all for your feedback, it really is encouraging to hear these comments particularly from the mods who know the ground so well. Stu - completely agree it was such an awesome experience and I'm happy to have captured a nice memory of it, problem is now I'm hooked on falcons