Peregrine Falcon

[Herb Houghton]

Here's a juvenile peregrine from the New Jersey Palisades Cliffs overlooking the Hudson River and NYC, 500 feet elevation. It was banded by NJ Fish and Wildlife ( June 2008) before it had fledged. I captured this image within a week of fledging. Most of my shots of the fledgelings are with the leg bands visible, but this is one of the few shots I have without the bracelets in view. Shot in steady rain, I cloned out some oof rain drops. 40D, 500 f4 plus 1.4x, iso 640, f5.6, 1/320 shot in Aperture Priority from tripod/ ball head. The BGD is distant cliff walls.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Fantastic image Herb. Just love the look back pose, the IQ, the brown tones and the rain drops add a very nice touch.
Brilliant image!

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, sharpness, perch and BG. I think this would be good as a vertical as well. Well done Herb!

[MohsenVahedipour]

Excellent Pose, sharpness & detail. I like the rain drops too.

[Stu Bowie]

Excellent look back pose, with good DOF on the falcon. I like the complimentary colours in the BG. I can see this as a vertical too.

[Robert Holguin]

Real great shot. Love the over the shoulder pose. Nice detail and wonderful background. A job well done.

[Herb Houghton]

Thanks for all of the comments gentlemen. I actually considered a vertical crop originally, but I feared the vertical banding from light to dark tones would be too distracting. Just to the left of the bird was a very dark section of a shaded cliff wall. I have many more of this and one of it's siblings, but they all have bracelets on. I'm not sure of the policy here as far as posting shots of banded birds ? Of course, some of my best shots have the leg bands in view.

[adrian dancy]

Excellent work. Not sure why you cloned rain drops out...you might have done better adding a few more in!

[Geir Jensen]

A great picture. I think that picture would have been better, with more rain drops. Lovely background. Great pose

[gail bisson]

I really like this composition and the empty space to the right. Just feels right somehow. I am sure it would look great as a vertical as well. I really like the head angle and how all the color tones of browns and blacks and beige compliment each other. IQ is awesome,
Gail

[yogesh_puranik]

wow..superb sharpness and clean image..that rain drops looks very beautiful..

[Karl Egressy]

Great looking back pose, nice feather datails and nice background, Herb. For this pose a vertical would work nicely as well.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent light and pose I'd go vertical for this one

[denise ippolito]

Herb, Great pose, details, sharpness and IQ. Love the BG. Nice one!!

[Arthur Morris]

Pretty much perfect. Super sharp with a perfect EXP and killer BKGR. Did you make any verticals?

[christopher galeski]

magic shot Herb,love it,nice pose,but is it me,as this image got a magenta cast,or is it the lighting,or color of the rocks,nobody else as said anything,so I supose I am wrong,still a great shot.thanks.

[Herb Houghton]

OK, it sounds like vertical comp is the preference. Here's a vertical version. A sliver is off of the top, otherwise it's a full vertical crop of the original horizontal capture. The rain drops cloned out looked more like dust bunnies than the in motion rain drops you see.

[gail bisson]

Both the OP and the repost are terrific. But my fav is the OP,
Gail

[Jonathan Ashton]

Beautiful shot(s) I like both versions best!

[Arthur Morris]

I love em both. What I had in mind was an original vertical that included more of the rock thus emphasizing the cliff habitat. In retrospect you might consider losing all of the raindrops.