![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/american-kestrel-2660-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-2660-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThese photos are the epitome of the bird photography style known as “bird on a stick”. But at least it’s a natural stick and he did “salute” me to make up for it.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Kestrels generally prefer high perches but at Farmington there are few natural perches of any kind, tall or short, so this guy settled for the tallest, skinniest one he could find on a short “tree”. Even so he was still pretty close to eye level to me and even though he was sidelit his body was angled toward the sun so I had good light on all of his important parts. I like the result.<\/p>\n And I love his deceiving demeanor. To me he looks so sweet, gentle and calm here, not at all like his true self – an incredibly fierce and efficient little killer (yes, there’s blood on his belly and toes that can be seen a little better in the next shot).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n At one point he flashed a single wing at me and I don’t know why. Usually when that happens they’ve lost their balance but he was relaxed on the perch the entire time. He certainly didn’t appear to be losing his balance and it was far too fast for a stretch. It was out for only a split-second and as he folded it back he hadn’t changed his relaxed posture in the least. Who knows why he did it but I thought it looked almost like he was giving me a snappy salute.<\/p>\n I thought it was an interesting pose, even with the sidelight. And even though I barely got a catch light in his eye I did get one so I like the shot.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: <\/em><\/p>\n Speaking of catch lights, here’s some full disclosure. <\/em><\/p>\n I never artificially add catch lights to my images (for more reasons than one but that’s another story). But occasionally I’ll slightly enhance one that already exists, which is what I’ve done with this second photo. The catch light was there but it wasn’t very distinct so I selected the 5 pixels involved and applied a very small amount of sharpening to them. Among other things sharpening brightens pixels so it made just the right amount of difference in my judgment. There are other methods of enhancing catch lights too, most of which involve selectively increasing their exposure. I don’t see any of them as cheating or being dishonest because in serious photography adjustments like sharpening and exposure are normally done to virtually all photos.<\/em><\/p>\n Over the years I’ve deleted many photos that had no catch light at all that I otherwise liked very much. It’s painful, very painful.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I’m embarrassed. These photos weren’t taken at Farmington – instead they were taken near my neighborhood on my way home from Farmington. Synapse gap failure once again.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These photos are the epitome of the bird photography style known as “bird on a stick”. But at least it’s a natural stick and he did “salute” me to make up for it.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/american-kestrel-2614-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-2614-ron-dudley\\"")
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