Kestral fledgling

[Kerry Perkins]

I returned to the nest yesterday and found that the baby kestrals had fledged (at least two of them). Only two days before they were just flapping their wings and climbing around in the tree. Shot in evening light and did some serious tree trimming to make this presentable. Happily, none of the branches were in front of or behind the bird. By moving side to side and up and down, I was able to clear the margins of the bird but only barely!

50D, EF400mm f/5.6L
Manual mode, f/8@1/1250 ISO 400 WB 5100K
AI Servo autofocus, hand-held no flash

Comments welcome!

[Dave Leroy]

It looks like the little fellow is hanging on for dear life.

I really like the nice pose, perch and bg.and well done on the pp'n.

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful little bird, beautifully captured. Great look-back pose and eye contact. Every time I see a nice sharp shot like this with a 400mm lens it gives me hope. Well done.

[Pete Padilla]

Great shot Kerry. The lighting and sharpness looks like a real keeper. Was out at Satwiwa Thurs. and the Red Tail fledglings were out of the nest and sitting on a couple limbs near the nest.

[Alfred Forns]

Sure like when you use that lens Exposure right on and like the pose/bg !! Simple and works Big Congrats !!!

[Harold Davis]

you are one lucky dude getting to work these guys so close!! love all the work you did. looks great on my end!!

[Ken Lassman]

Beautiful Perry...like everything..BG, perch, pose and comp. TFS

[Lance Peters]

Awesome Kerry - Nailed it - love the colours on these guys.
Nailed it - IMHO!!!

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Very well done. Excellent composition, background, color, detail, and subject. Exposure spot on. I see a problem though. Although the are big advantages in high contrast light, in that it brings out feather detail and sharpness of a subject, it also causes dark detail-less shadows. Note; the high contrast of direct sunlight can also occur any time of day if there are no clouds, mists, fog, or anything else to diffuse the light. Fortunately these mediators are fairly common in the morning, and even toward sunset when the sun also has a substantially greater distance of atmosphere to travel through than at midday, and therefore is more likely to encounter some source of light diffusion.
In any case, we do have dark shadows in this image with virtually no detail. This is IMO a distraction, even though shadows on the bird itself have been skillfully avoided. Given the light, it would be almost impossible to get a better image! Nonetheless, softer light would have been preferable. Given the lighting as is-possibly a fill flash, though startling the bird is a possibility which might need to be avoided. Another possibility, which may be helpful, would be in post-processing; in ACR use of curves(shadows/darks) adjustment. I avoid the shadow highlight tool in PS at all costs, since it cause halos and other nasty stuff.
Great work Kerry. regards~BILL

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks for the comments everyone, much appreciated! :)

[Dave Mills]

Hi Kerry, Very well handled. Good detail on the bird,positioning within the frame,lighting,muted bkrnd and HA.
There is a black,detailess area of shade under the bird but I don't feel it's a serious negative to the overall. With all this images plusses I feel it's a minor issue...

[Dan Brown]

You did great with a great opportunity Kerry! I am envious of such a close encounter with this species! Love it! Love the BG! The bird seems a tiny bit over sharpened but that may be my laptop? Great work!

[Kerry Perkins]

Sorry for the incorrect spelling of "kestrel"! Don't know how I got that in my head!?