Occasionally one of my photos will grow on me the more I reflect on it and this one from yesterday morning is an example.
1/6400, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
This female American Kestrel was actually in the middle of enjoying a meal of vole as I watched her through my lens yesterday morning (she’s holding it in her left foot behind the rock). For much of that time she was facing me so I couldn’t see much of her tail or wings but here she’d turned enough to allow a good look at her entire body. She was very cooperative, especially for a kestrel, so she allowed me almost 10 minutes with her as she consumed the vole. Out of 400+ photos of her this is one of my favorites.
I like the craggy natural perch that includes two lichen colors, the sprigs of grass near the perch, the slightly side-lit angle works well for my tastes, the little falcon is sharp throughout and her pose appeals to me (including how she’s looking out into the empty space to our left rather than over the top of the rock to our right).
But for me two more subtle aspects of the image that I didn’t pay much attention to at first provide significant enhancement:
- I like the radiating rays in the background (particularly the upper background) that almost seem to provide a sunburst pattern radiating from the lower portion of the image. Sometimes these rabbitbrush/sagebrush backgrounds don’t appeal to me much but this one does, especially considering the fact that there’s finally some green back there after our long, dreary winter.
- For me this photo has a three-dimensional quality that I seldom get and really enjoy when I do. There’s significant visual depth between the foreground and background and that’s a quality that’s often missing in my images.
Aesthetic tastes are often personal and unique to individuals of course so I’m sure many of my viewers will have a different take on this photo and that’s as it should be. But I’ve provided mine, for what that’s worth…
I’ll likely post other images of this beautiful lady sometime in the near future but over time I wouldn’t be surprised if this one becomes one of my favorites, of any raptor. But it usually takes me some time to come to final conclusions like that so I’ll just have to wait and see.
Ron
PS – No image is perfect and this one is no exception. If I had my druthers there’d be better color separation between her dark bill and the shaded portion between her neck and shoulder. And the rocky perch could be slightly sharper but since she was standing behind the front face of the rock I didn’t have enough depth of field to accomplish that while shooting at f/6.3. In addition I certainly didn’t need a shutter speed of 1/6400 but this is one of the first photos I took of her and I hadn’t yet had time to adjust my settings.
You knew I had to find a few things to pick on…
Gorgeous photo of a gorgeous bird. I especially like the way her face looks.
What a BEAUTY! Yes, I’m easy with raptors (and birds and critters), but still. That’s sheer beauty! I love this shot for all the reasons you listed (and more) and I’m just gonna THWAP you upside the head for picking nits! Seriously, Ron! THWAP! If I could change one thing about you it would be to allow you to celebrate your outrageous talent! There will always be nits. Life is full of nits–move on and celebrate the rest of your magic 😉
Kestrels are jewels that we’re blessed live here with us (the psychotic Evil Princess who’s terrified of sparrows and mice unless they’re already dead and delivered to her in a timely manner is excused from this discussion!). They possess a certain magic all their own, and how wonderful it is to see them flourishing. I always love it when they’re well fed.
On top of that, I’ll stop and admire lichens whenever possible. It was a major challenge to pay attention to Jack when I hunted him at a friend’s place. The beautiful lichens and rocks were just magnificent. Thankfully, Jack is a patient boy…well mostly.
Thanks, Laura. I have to ask – do you know how she developed her fear of live prey that is very typically fed on by wild kestrels?
Her background is sketchy, but my best guess is that she was taken into captivity as a nestling before that hunting idea developed fully. She’ll catch crickets, but that’s it. She MIGHT grab a live mouse if I’m holding it, but she’s literally terrified of live mice/sparrows and I have stories about those adventures. I’m trying to work through that problem, but thus far, she’s gone through all my intelligence. She might have to be a lot hungrier and I haven’t taken her there yet.
The good news is she isn’t trashing her tail anymore. This is the first season with me that she’s had a full tail. I’m SO thankful about that!
Thanks for the response, Laura. I was quite curious so I had to ask.
HOORAY.
Magnificent bird, magnificent photo. And even the world champion nit-picker could only find small ones.
I could look a little harder, EC! 🙂 Thanks.
Spectacular shot Ron, in every way.
When I first saw the post this morning on my phone, I couldn’t believe how the separation on the bird’s left side and breast popped – even on the small screen!
I also love the similar clolour tones in the bird and the lichens, and the hint of gren in the background.
Just perfect!
Thanks very much, D. The green in the background makes a big difference for me.
This is a phenomenal shot for all the reasons you’ve described, Ron! Plus a couple more. The little piece of brush in front of the perch is casting a shadow I quite like because it’s acting as a sort of sundial for me. This adds to my 3-D enjoyment because it helps me better imagine the position of the sun. Also, I like the little peek-a-boo of the vole’s eye and ear behind the edge of the rock. It’s hard for me to tell for sure because I’m on my ancient iPad, but it seems that you even got a bit of a catchlight in the vole’s eye too. That’s skill!
Ha, you have better eyes than I do, Marty – even on a small screen! Thank you.
I love the depth in this. And I really love the color pick up between the lichen in the rock and her own coloring.
Thank you, Arwen.
That is probably the perfect picture of a kestrel….the bird, the catch light, the detail, the perch, the background and the light….what more could you want(yes, even you, Ron!)
Thanks, Patty. It’s close enough to perfect for me… 🙂
Beautiful shot Ron!
Thanks, Xavier.
Beautiful photo Ron and beautiful Kestrel. I think I mentioned before that I am working with the American Kestrel Partnership people here in Prescott to provide boxes and monitor them in an effort to stop or reduce their declining numbers. The Peregrine Fund reports that their numbers have declined by 45% nationally and in the northeast a remarkable 88%. If all goes well I might have a chance to hold one when the juveniles get banded in early June. I am very lucky to have a beautiful male who visits a tall pine tree once in a while in my next door neighbor’s yard.
Everett Sanborn, Prescott AZ
Yes, the decline in kestrel populations in many parts of the country is truly alarming, Everett. Thankfully we still seem to have pretty good numbers of them around here, thanks in part to the efforts of HawkWatch International and their volunteers.
Everett, when you hold a Kestrel, make sure your hands are protected because they LOVE to take chunks out of you! Voice of experience here 😉
Wonderful Ron!
Charlotte
Thanks, Charlotte.
Ron – Funny that you would mention going back and re-looking at older pictures as I’ve been doing the same this past few months. My skills have increased (I hope) in Photoshop over the past 6 months. So I’ve been looking for older pics to re-edit and see if I can bring goodness to them that was beyond my ability at the time I shot them. Sadly, my older photos, for the most part, lack the innate sharpness, composition or other traits that I value. I was just learning to shoot and my gear was not what it is today…and it shows in those older photos. I can loosely draw a line in the sand…when I was shooting the Tamron 150-600 or the Nikon 300 f/4…those were tough days. But when I jumped to the Canon 400 f/5.6, then 500 f/4 and now my jump back to Nikon with the 600 prime…it’s a noticeable difference given the type of photos I try and make. I was wondering if you have the same experience when going back into your archives and relooking photos.
“I was wondering if you have the same experience when going back into your archives and relooking photos.
I certainly do, Zaph. I started with the first edition of the Canon 100-400 and mediocre (at best) photo skills so many of those early photos make me wince. Some of them can be significantly improved upon with better processing and I often look for those types of images to work on. But the shortcomings of other older photos were due to my lower quality lens at the time (with much less reach) and you just can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear!
PS – Its nice to see your avatar finally show up!
Just gorgeous…….those rays of rabbit brush in the background provide a lovely soft “echo” of the vertical markings on her face, particularly in the area around her head……..they are the kind of
beautiful accidents which you could never have planned, but which I’m guessing that you respond to intuitively when they’re present……thanks for a lovely morning vision !
“beautiful accidents which you could never have planned”
I like the way you said that, Kris. Serendipity is so very welcome when it happens…
Beautiful! I also like the radiating rays in the background and the lichens also set off the bird. Bird still is “central” but the other aspects add to rather than distract from the photo.:) Everything certainly came together!
Thank you, Judy. Some of those rays at bottom might be a little bright and dominant but I’ve decided that really doesn’t bother me.
Beautiful image and a beautiful bird! It is a perfect setting with all the complimenting colors overall…I don’t think you could have planned for a better shot.I see the male of the species often but not the females and find they are one of the most difficult to capture…wary little ones they are…
I’m glad you appreciate the natural colors and setting, Kathy. A photo like this one appeals to me SO MUCH more than those spectacular bird photos we often see that have been set up with artificial perches meant to look natural and setup backgrounds with the bird baited in with food.
And since methods used to get photos like that are almost never disclosed they just leave me cold…
Beautiful bird, beautiful shot!!
Thanks, Joanne.