Greater Kestrel with prey (wild)

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is another shot I took of the Greater Kestrel feeding on a rodent in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa in September...(see http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=48545).

This shot gave me a clearer angle towards the bird - but I still had to clone out quite a lot of branches in front of the face. I love the detail in the eye and the pose. Light was at the latter end of harshness as the afternoon started to cool down.

This is about 80% of full frame.

Love to have your 2c...

Techs:
Canon 1000D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 400mm
f5.6 @ 1/2000 SS @ ISO-400
Exp +0.3

[Loukie Viljoen]

Morkel unfortunately they sit where they want to, not where you want to, well handled with natural prey. Mooi

[Dave Blinder]

Morkel - Beautiful bird and nice exposure. I think ideally you'd want to take a few steps to the right here, but I imagine that wasn't possible or would have flushed the bird.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Loukie and Dave

Dave - this was taken from our vehicle and you are not allowed to exit your vehicle in our National Parks (predators and all that jazz :))

[Dave Blinder]

Dave - this was taken from our vehicle and you are not allowed to exit your vehicle in our National Parks (predators and all that jazz :))

Not even allowed to risk an arm or a leg to photograph birds? :)

I completely understand Morkel.

[Morkel Erasmus]

hehe - no ;)

even moving the car to the right wouldn't have helped since the twigs I cloned out would have obscured the view...

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I like the bird and sky, but something that also attacks my attention is the tree where is perching, it looks like a relative of a Acacia sp. That must be a dry and hot area where you took this picture.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Juan - this was taken in the Kalahari, a semi-desert region in Southern Africa...

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice find, good eye contact and the food item adds to it. The image looks a bit bright on my monitor. I would take the midtones to 0.9 or so and maybe increase contrast a few points.

[Harshad Barve]

Morkelbhai
Time to swop parks :D
Nice eye contact and kill is bonus
TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the input Axel & Harshad Bhai :)

Axel - here is a repost with your suggestions followed. Thanks, I think it has improved the image.

Harshad - I'll definitely take a safari in India to look for tigers anytime... ;)

[Stu Bowie]

Hey Mork, you nailed the repost. The colours look so much better, and what a great sighting.