A Peregrine of my own

[Doug Brown]

I've got a few Peregrine Falcon images of my own. Thought I'd share one this morning. These are tough birds to focus on in relatively low light, but the keepers can be pretty nice! :)



Canon 1D Mark III, 500mm, f/4, 1/800, ISO 1000, manual exposure, hand held

[Kiran Poonacha]

Lovely image Doug, loved the wing spread and the eye contact.. would just sharpen the head a bit ..

[joel quenneville]

Congratulations on this nice pose. You managed to give us all those wing and tail feather details while keeping good eye contact. The head turn is what makes this image, the peregrine's powerful stare pulls the viewer's eye. I also like that the yellow around the eye is the only bit of color on this image. Golden light would have made this one a killer image as it would have revealed more texture in the feathers and have given a pleasing, overall tone to the image.

[Aidan Briggs]

Killer banking pose, soft, even lighting, and cloudy BG. I might selectively sharpen the head a tiny bit more.

Well done!

[Aidan Briggs]

Sorry for the repeat comment, me and Kiran were typing at the same time.

[Kerry Barlow]

Lovely capture that almost has the feel of a water colour about it. It reminds me of a Charles Tunnicliffe drawing.

[Doug Brown]

Here's a slightly sharper version. Processed on my laptop. Not sure what it would look like on a big monitor. Better or worse?

[Chris van Rooyen]

Great posture, sharpness is adequate and the head-turn is a bonus! Not my favourite background, but the soft light enhanced the feather detail nicely!

[Brian Barcelos]

Doug, very nice. Re post an improvement. Can't find anything wrong with this one. Where did you take this bye the way?
Brian

[Doug Brown]

Yes, the BG was a little rough; not like your awesome shots from Africa. I've got some against an ocean BG that I'll be posting as well. But we had a lot of cloud cover during our trip. And it was a west-facing cliff, so we could only photograph in the morning. Still happy to have gotten to spend some quality time with this family of four!

[Doug Brown]

Photographed in Southern California Brian.

[David Roach]

Wonderful top view!! Great feather detail! Could it use a bit more contrast?

[Doug Brown]

Good question David. I originally boosted contrast but backed off because this is how the bird looked in the field.

[Gerrie van Vuuren]

Like the angle of flight, turn of the head, full spread of wings & fanned tail. Wellk captured image!

[Morkel Erasmus]

looks better now Doug, but was a great shot to start with! lovely wingspread and exposure. was it cloudy?

[Chris Kotze]

Super angle and pose. Lovely eye contact and the repost looks great

[Grace Scalzo]

Beautiful wingspread and the look back is nice. Super tough image to create!

[Declan Troy]

I like that the feather detail is so good that you can track the progression of molt along the various feather tracks by the variations in color.

[Stu Bowie]

Outstanding banking angle captured in this Doug, and the eye contact takes this over the top. Your repost looks much sharper. Well done.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Sweet Banking pose! I actually kind of like the BG. Contrast boost.....maybe....but not the head area. Winner in my book!

[James Salywoda]

Sweet Shot! I really like the banking pose captured such fun birds......

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Really good looking Falcon.
Love the dorsal view and the extra sharpening of the repost. Way to go!

[Dan Brown]

Very nice Doug! Once again I am envious! Is this a cropped image? With a bird photo like this, one tends to see any imperfection and I am wishing that the birds wing feathers were more "perfect" but, it is what it is! Love the dorsal view and the sharpness!

[Jay Gould]

Photographed in Southern California Brian.

Lovely image Mate. I keep jumping back and forth between the OP and RP to see a difference; hardly a difference to my eye. Yours is a very peaceful Peregrine compared to some of Jim's images. I like it a lot.

:D - where in Southern California?

I am going to have one day free while in San Diego in October.

Cheers, Jay

[Juan Aragonés]

Fantastic banking pose and head turn Doug. The shutter speed is a bit low to capture this living bullets and the tail seems to have the effect of low shutter speed but I thnk that you had not many options considering the poor light conditions. I agree taht a litle bit of contrast boosting would made this image even better :-)

[Doug Brown]

Excellent point Juan. Photographing flying Peregrine Falcons at 1/800 is tough. I don't remember what was happening at the time of this image. I suspect I was photographing a perched juvenile when an adult flew by unexpectedly. If I'd had some time, I would have pushed my ISO up to 1250 or 1600 for some extra shutter speed.

[Gal Shon]

supreb shot,
The sharper version is better in my opinion,
There's a strong editing halo.