![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/american-kestrel-0432-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"2022\/01\/american-kestrel-0432-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nHovering kestrels are stationary targets, or mostly so, so what makes it so darn hard to get really good photos of them?<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, f\/8, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Two days ago, near the Bear River, I took hundreds of photos of this male American Kestrel as he hovered over several spots in search of potential prey directly below him. Most of those shots were garbage and have already been deleted. I found three that I liked and this one is my favorite.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our best chance of finding hovering kestrels is when it’s windy because they can use the moving air to help them remain airborne over the same spot with less effort. But, and it’s a big ‘but’, it’s most efficient for them to remain airborne when they’re facing directly into the wind. So that’s what they do and that complicates matters. A lot.<\/p>\n Just finding a hovering kestrel is hard enough. And it has to be close. But that still isn’t enough because unless the wind’s blowing the right direction in relation to the sun and unless the sun is low in the sky somewhere behind the photographer, we’re very unlikely to get good light on its body or face. It’s the pesky wind direction that has put the kibosh on most of my hovering kestrel shots over the years.<\/p>\n Most of my shots of this hovering kestrel had a poor light angle on the bird (especially his face) because, thanks to the wind direction, the sun was mostly behind him. But for just a moment he turned his flight angle a couple of degrees to his right – just enough to put light on his body. And he chose that moment to stop looking down and turn his head toward me which put good light on his face. That’s when I got the few shots I like.<\/p>\n Don’t get me wrong, the photo isn’t perfect. The kestrel wasn’t very close so this version has been cropped quite a bit. And he’s facing slightly away from me but his head turn toward me mostly solved that problem.<\/p>\n But I’d still call it a pretty good shot and it’s one of the better photos I have of a hovering kestrel. I’ve taken hundreds of mediocre photos of hovering kestrels, and thousands of terrible ones, but very few good ones.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note to photographers. This photo is evidence of one of the virtues of taking many shots in bursts of an active bird. The action is happening so fast, and subtle changes are occurring so quickly, you just never know what you’ll get, or won’t get, until long after the event is over.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hovering kestrels are stationary targets, or mostly so, so what makes it so darn hard to get really good photos them.<\/p>\n