The Falcon !!

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Got this early morning at the Masai Mara . It stay put, for quite sometime and allowed us to approach it quite near . Went as far as possible to the right to get the dark BG of the mountain behind it . Could not go any further , because a tree was blocking the view , so got that irritating light patch in the BG .

Any help on the id would be helpful .

Camera : Canon 1D MK III
Lens : 600mm f4 IS , 2X TC
Shutters : 1/400
Aperture : f11
ISO : 2000

Cheers,
Rakesh

[Roy Priest]

Beautiful picture. The white behind the falcon is a little distracting as it seems to keep catching my eye, but I like this very much. I will vote Lanner on the ID.

[RAM MALLYA]

Amazing shot you could have moved to the left to reduce the whites in the BG perhaps .

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Ya Ram , That was the idea , but a tree was blocking the view , so this is the farthest I could go .

[Chris Martinez]

I notice a weird artifact on the right hand side of the frame. A little brown spec and some darker blue discolouration.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice fluffed up pose, and great viewof the large talons. Very neat perch too. I like the pale BG, but like you and others have mentioned too bad about the white area in ULC. Should be easily fixable, if you wish, with some careful masking and clone tool with that even-coloured BG.

As far as head angle goes, I'm not really a fan of the far eye just barely showing (I'm fussy that way!!), so I would have preferred either more or less of a head turn to show more or hide it all (even if the head is parallel to the body angle as is). Super image in any case!

BTW, that tint speck at right, likely an insect, should go...very easy with the spot removal tool, or patch tool, or clone tool...

[gail bisson]

I will be the different one on this. I am OK with the BG. Fluffed up pose is nice and I like the HA. Nice simple perch that suits the lanner's size.Definitely "zap" away the insect and ? artifact around it. I like this,
Gail

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot, I really like the plumage detail. If it were mine I would select the pale area and replace it with the darker colour. The fly I would leave him where he is, I don't think he is really doing any harm - but that's just me.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Love the fluffy plumage and perch. Would like to see the white gone as well. I like it

[Stu Bowie]

Rakesh, I like the fluffy plumage, and this angle shows off those talons very well. I like the comp as is with the perch arching through the LLC, but I can see this as a vertical too. Would get rid of some of your white BG, which is easily rectified as Dan stated.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice texture and color..Contrast looks perfect to me!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Rakesh, beautful shot....the fluffed feathers is the best part. Well exposed, well composed....loved that BG color.

[Riju Bhattacharya]

I actually like the white in the background...kind of gives a feeling of the bird sitting in the heavens!
Love the fluffy puffy feel about it...