![\"american-kestrel-2486\"](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/american-kestrel-2486.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-2486\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n1\/640, f\/8, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n On this cold February morning of this year I’d been out shooting Northern Harriers but tremendous winds came up so I decided to call it a day.\u00a0 On the way out of the refuge I noticed this male American Kestrel higher up in a tree and decided to pull up and see what might happen, since he wasn’t in a good position for photography at first.\u00a0\u00a0 Soon, in an obvious attempt to get out of the howling wind, he flew down and landed on this stump almost at ground level.\u00a0\u00a0 The problem was that\u00a0he was in deep shade.\u00a0 But because of the wind blowing all the tree branches around, occasionally some side light would strike him.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I took a few shots without high hopes of getting anything I liked.\u00a0 I was pleasantly surprised with a few of the images when\u00a0I looked at them\u00a0and this is one of them.<\/p>\n I quite like the setting and light in this shot.\u00a0 The detail is very good, especially at a larger size because I was very close to the bird.\u00a0 Some may think the brightness of the grass stems on the left are less than ideal but personally\u00a0I’m fine with them.\u00a0 I was pleased that\u00a0f\/8 gave me enough depth of field to keep\u00a0all of the bird relatively sharp and still blur much of the background.\u00a0 .\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Kestrels are among my favorite subjects.\u00a0 I think they are spectacularly beautiful birds, they have a real chip on their shoulders\u00a0(I’ve always liked “attitude” in my subjects) and they’re challenging to get close too.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Directional, moody lighting is an acquired taste for some – at least it was for me when I first starting photographing birds.\u00a0 Now I’m a fervent convert to the genre, especially\u00a0when I can get a pleasing setting that\u00a0I like to go along with it. 1\/640, f\/8, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc On this cold February morning of this year I’d been out shooting Northern Harriers but tremendous winds came up so I decided to call it a day.\u00a0 On the way out of the refuge I noticed this male American Kestrel higher up in a tree and decided to pull up and see what might happen, since he wasn’t in a good position for photography at first.\u00a0\u00a0 Soon, in an obvious attempt to get out of the howling wind, he flew down and landed on this stump almost at ground level.\u00a0\u00a0 The problem was that\u00a0he was in deep shade.\u00a0 But because of the wind blowing all the tree branches around, occasionally some side light would strike him.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I took a few shots without high hopes of getting anything I liked.\u00a0 I was pleasantly surprised with a few of the images when\u00a0I looked at them\u00a0and this is one of them. I quite like the setting and light in this shot.\u00a0 The detail is very good, especially at a larger size because I was very close to the bird.\u00a0 Some may think the brightness of the grass stems on the left are less than ideal but personally\u00a0I’m fine with them.\u00a0 I was pleased that\u00a0f\/8 gave…<\/p>\n