American Kestrel

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

I have tried for a number of years to get a decent image of an American Kestrel. I have chased them down miles of telephone lines as my target moved just I got my sight on him or he was sitting in the top of a dead tree 150 yards away from me. Today my wife and I were at the Pelican Island NWR and I was taking a few shots of a dove (sort of uninteresting) which was sitting in a small tree about 50 yards away. My wife brought my attention to the Kestrel which was in another small tree about 25 yards from us. I was shooting off a bag out the window of the car with a Nikon D700, a 600mm f/4 lend with a 2X extender. The result was this image which I a very proud of. Any coments are welcome. Shooting info below.
2011:02:14 17:21:00
1200mm
1200mm (in 35mm film)
Subject dist: 11.9m
1/400 sec, f/11
Mode: Av
Metering: Spot
Exp comp: +2/3
ISO: 800
White balance: Auto
Flash: Off
File size: 45.2MB
Image size: 1519 x 1193
Color space: sRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Color profile: sRGB

[Jeff Parker]

I know what you mean, this is a species that has eluded me as well.

Nice light on this one. Decent sharpness. The background is a wee bit busy.

[AlvanBuckley]

Beautiful background colours to compliment the bird! As Jeff said, the background is a little busy but I think it is tolerable. Love the head angle.

[John Guastella]

Gorgeous shot, Wheeler; beautiful light and detail. As already mentioned, the BG is kind of busy, but with a little work in PS you could remove most of those OOF branches behind the bird. Would improve the image dramatically.

JOhn

[Sid Garige]

Excellent exposure and details.

[Allen Hirsch]

Nice light & colors, great eye contact - this is a hard one to get anywhere close to eye level, and/or on a natural perch.

Agree that some cloning out of those OOF branches behind the bird would pay huge dividends.

[Todd Frost]

Tough little bird to capture for sure. Exposure looks good as well as eye contact. Sharpness look pretty good. Well done.
TFS
Todd

[Thomas Herou]

I like the light in this image.
A beautiful bird!

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Thank you all for your thoughts. I am reposting with the out of focus branches taken out and the crop a little larger. What do you think, better or worse?

[John Guastella]

Wheeler, the branch removal surgery was a major success, but there is now a light-brown halo around the back of the bird (extending from the neck to the tail). Looks like you bumped up the contrast a bit. Nothing wrong with that, but I prefer the soft look of your original post.

John

[Arthur Morris]

Worse by far. The soft, airy mood of the original post is gone.... I love pretty much everything about the image in Pane 1.