American Kestrel

[Kenn Jolemore]

First one I have had the pleasure to see in the Norfolk Va. area in 10 years of birding. Originaly saw him eating on top of a light post at the end of the street. Once he moved on to a tree the light improved considerably.
F-10 , ISO 125 , +0.3EV Exposure 1/1000 AP @ 400MM
K10D with a AT-X 80-400 mm Tokina
Kenn

[Lance Peters]

Hi - glad you got to see this guy, you look like you have some very very bad CA happening here (the purple outlines) have you sharpened this image???

I mad a few quick adjustments for you.

:)

[Alfred Forns]

HI Kenn

Good looking bird and great find Love Kestrels

You did come up with a good pose and great head angle all with a clean bg. Waiting for the natural perch was a good move.

Got a couple of suggestions. Exposure wise the image is underexposed, need to concern yourself with the bird and not with the bg. Looks like the light Was from the right so the left side of the bird is in shadows, compensation should have been close to + 1 2/3 Checking the histogram would have told you but remember you are looking a the bird not the bg. Possible to have over exposed pixels in the bg but its fine.

Sharpness wise seems its a little soft, don't know if you were hand holding? MIght want to increase the ISO to 200 and open the lens a bit more, the combination should give a higher shutter speed for safety.

Framing wise you could do away with some of the perch, crop left. Quality wise there are problems with the image being underexposed by close to two stops so it sets in motion a series of events which are difficult to recover. Would suggest checking the histogram and starting with a well exposed image. Sure hope you get another chance at this fine bird and looking forward to your next post !!!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Kenn,
I like the composition...techs. have been covered by Mr. Forns and Mr. Peters. Looking forward to your next capture...:cool:

[Kenn Jolemore]

Thanks so much for taking the time to give this a good looking at.
I saw no fringing on my monitor but truth be told it is not the best of it's kind but sufficient most of the time.
I have a series of shots of this fellow hunting and tearing into it's prey but the lighting is not very good as he was between me and the sun so when he moved to the new pearch I got to shooting fast least I loose him to a new spot. I had a monopod and was using that but did not have my wits about me enough to check my exposure while taking these shots.
Thanks again all
Kenn