Peregrine Falcons #6

[Jim Neiger]

SoCal - 1D3, 500mm, hand held, 1/800, F4, ISO 1250, manual exposure, slight crop

[Brian Barcelos]

Jim, after seeing all these wonderful Peregrine pics you took I wished I was there with you. Only minus would be the HA but the wonderful dorsal view makes up for it.

[Markus Jais]

fantastic shot. As Brian already mentioned a slightly different head angle (a little more towards the camera) might have been perfect but this is already fantastic as it is. Wonderful light and wing position. I like the form of the tail.

Markus

[Kobus Tollig]

Not the best light. You got a nice pose and comp here. Got nosie on the feathers. Good effort

[Morkel Erasmus]

yeah the noise probably due to the high ISO, but the pose and downward dive angle are great for me. light could be better, but you did well with what you had!

[Leo Berzins]

Great action shot. The sharpness of the head and talons are very impressive given the techs.
An inspiration for us learners who would normally give up attempting flight photography in such low light.

[Kerry Barlow]

To my untrained eyes it is an excellent capture. I like the sense of movement in the wings, the tail detail and the colour is great.

[Don Anderson]

Noise--who cares.. this is a fantastic composition and wonderful action
you captured, In focus.. I very much like it.. on a shot like this don't
fret about the small things. You captured the moment.

[Alan Murphy]

Another killer flight shot. Maybe a catchlight added in the eye?

[Aidan Briggs]

Noise doesn't bug me here. Great pose, and action. I do wish for more of a head turn though.

Well done!

[Chris van Rooyen]

Hmm - impressive! Noise doesn't bug me, I would have gone for a higher shutter speed though, but that's just a personal preference.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Noise and head turn dont bug me :-) In such a shot, I think its all about the moment. You already got the open beak, the wing spread, the tail spread. wonderful. I liked the talons too. They make it look more aggressive...more in the elements.

[Jim Neiger]

Hmm - impressive! Noise doesn't bug me, I would have gone for a higher shutter speed though, but that's just a personal preference.

Chris,

I would also opt for a higher SS if possible, but I like to avoid NR on the bird itself and I was trying to use the minimum SS I needed to capture the image while keeping the noise to a minimum. I avoid using NR on the subject because it also causes loss of detail. In this case 1/800 was just enough to get the head and body sharp. I actualy like the motion blur in the wing tips. Sometimes I purposely use a lower SS and do pan blurs to get this effect.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Jim I take your point:-)

[Stu Bowie]

Superb wingspread and angle of flight. Great to see the open beak. Well captured Jim.

[Juan Aragonés]

It works really fine to me and I see your point using such a low SS. I do not mind about the blur in the wing tips because the bird is really sharp on the head, body, tail and taloons. The open beak is a fantastic bonus.
I took the freedom of making some additional adjustments in PS. I selectively removed color noise in the wings, added a touch of saturation and toning down to the BG, and warmed up just a bit the color temperature of the bird.
A very good image Jim :-)

[Dr.Pranay Rao Juvvadi]

The blurred wing tips do not bother me as the rest of the falcon it sharp. The multicoloured background, top view and the screaming juvenile makes this a top image for me.