Hi guys, apologies for my recent absence, I've been a bit under the weather but feeling better now. This guy posed beautifully in the soft early morning light on my last morning in the Kgalagadi last month. Was a great way to say goodbye before heading back to Jo'burg. The high shutter speed was a precaution in case he decided to take off.
Camera Model: NIKON D3
Date/Time: 2009:06:24 08:02:14
Shutter speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 1000
Lens: 600mm with 1.7x
Focal length: 1000mm
I like the warm light on this elegant little falcon and the opposite angles of the head and body. I wish the perch hadn't encircled the tail so much- still a very nice image.
Chris, I am glad you are feeling better, its good you took a break to gather strength.
Your image is technically perfect, but in my opinion is lacking an expresion to the face, I understand this is not an action image but a portrait, in portraits I always look for some type of expresion on the face of the subject that transmits its mood, in this case I don´t see it, anyway I wish a had any image as well presented as this one.
Excellent use of the D3's superior handling of noise at high ISOs to take advantage of super-fast shutter speeds when called for. A beautiful species in great light. Well done!
Hi Chris,
Beautiful light on the subject - perhaps a tad more room on top would work. I love the perch - graphic and uncluttered.
Glad you are feeling better!
Best,
Nicki
Simply superb! Perch, pose, BG, light, species, detail, colors and pose are amazing! If it were mine I would've left a tad less room on the left side.
Big congratulations!
Beautiful subject, colours, BG and perch. If this were mine I would take some of the bottom so that the perch eminates from the right corner and would add some on top. Other than that excellent, congrats!
Chris, its a beautiful image nicely taken but what makes me wonder here is the super clean BG and the absence of any noise in this picture.
I would like to get some tips from you on the software you use to get rid of noise levels.
Chris, wonderful picture. Awesome light, pose and BK. THis bird is in wonderful condition as evidenced by the lovely yellow feet and cere. They appear to be a little different than the Indian species.
Fabulous.
Hey Chris, super image presented here, the detail of the falcon against that beautiful desert BG is really striking. Just as a matter of interest it looks as if the falcon was slightly above you, what was the BG? ISeeing these awesome images from the desert makes me think it is time to join you on one of your trips to the Kgalagadi I just hope you are not fully booked for next year...
Chris I wouldn´t change a single pixel in this image. Just perfect. Regarding the shutter speed... very well done, it is obvious that you were thinking no only in the image of the bird perched but also in the next frame with the bird taking off ;-)
Stunning Falcon,
Light, BG, quality, that is a beautiful one.
I wish for a slightly better angle, with this angle the twin branch perch is a bit more noticeable.
Thanks everyone for all the great comments and suggestions, and the well wishes. I'm not okay yet but hopefully by the end of the week things will be better! I will try to answer the questions: Because of the smooth background it was easy to select it and do selective noise reduction. I normally do selective blurring on the background of the Tiff image using Gaussian Blur, but I make sure that I contract the selection first by a few pixels and then feather it by the same amount of pixels, before running the blur filter. In this instance I created an additional layer after resizing and sharpening for the web, and ran another Gaussian blur. I then used the eraser tool to erase the effect of the Gaussian blur on the subject itself. I agree that I would have liked a more alert look, but this guy was just enjoying the sun on a cold winter morning:-) Yes I think the feet colour is right, they do have really bright yellow feet. Interestingly, the bird finally took off directly towards me and cornered a Kalahari robin-chat in a bush. It eventually descended to the ground proceeded to chase it on foot around the bush!!! Eventually both dissappeared when the robin-chat broke cover and fled, with the falcon in hot pursuit. Not sure what the outcome was!
Great picture; Like the warm light, details and the colours. There seem to slightly different from the ones seen here in India. I am yet to see one :-(
Red-necked Falcon
Reply With Quote
