Neusiedler See National Park #2: Eurasian Kestrel (male)

[Markus Jais]

Number 2 from my trip to Austria.
This is a 6MP crop from the original 18MP.

EOS 7D, 4/500, ISO 400, f5.0, 1/2000, hand held, manual exposure, Zone AF with central 9 (if I remember correctly)

There were several pairs of those little raptors but most were already breading. One pair was still displaying and they showed no fear and were often flying only 20-40 meters above us.
We shot during the early morning so that the sun would light up the birds from below. In that shot, the little falcon had exactly the wing and tail pose I wanted.

Hope you like it.,

Markus

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose, good light and eye contact. I might sharpen the bird more and could also see it as a vertical crop.

[Nancy A Elwood]

Markus I would go along with Axel on this one. But, having said that you got some lovely exposure and eye contact with him!

[Markus Jais]

Here is a vertical as Axel suggested and I sharpened the bird a bit more. The original looked a bit sharper, maybe this was due to "save for the web" in PS.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the repost even better!

[Steve Canuel]

Very nice Markus. The wing positions mirror each other perfectly and the fanned tail feathers look great coming off the body. The head turn to take a look at you tops it off. Both comps work for me.

[Arthur Morris]

Repost is better. Image quality is great. Could use a bit more contrast.... The pose and wing positions are just perfect.

[Stu Bowie]

Excellent flying posture Markus, and just love the eye contact. The vertical repost works so well. Well done.