![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/american-kestrel-8244-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-8244-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd why do the catch lights in her eye look… unusual?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/1000, f\/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This is an older photo of a female American Kestrel on a favorite kestrel perch at Farmington Bay WMA. She had been scratching her face but when I took the shot I caught her looking down her nose at me sideways as if I was a suspicious looking character (which may be a distinct possibility). The photo amuses me but I’ve never posted it before, probably because the double catch light in her eye has a strange look about it that I think is a little distracting. I find myself pondering her catch lights rather than enjoying other things about the photo.<\/p>\n In certain situations double catch lights aren’t unusual. For example a bird on or in the water will often have two (or more) of them – one a direct reflection of the sun behind the photographer and the other a reflection of a reflection of the sun off of the water directly in front of the bird. But this double catchlight seems unusual to me for two reasons:<\/p>\n I can only speculate about the answer to both questions. The second catchlight may be a reflection of the sun off of one of the reflective surfaces of my pickup that I was shooting from – perhaps my chrome bumper or a shiny painted surface. Believe it or not my usually dirty pickup does occasionally have shiny surfaces.<\/p>\n But why is the brightest, most dominant catch light the one on bottom? My only guess is that the curved surfaces of my pickup disperse the sun’s reflection over a larger area in the bird’s eye and make it appear larger and more dominant.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To many of my readers all this may seem like much ado about nothing but to photographers catch lights are nearly always essential elements of a quality bird photograph so I like to understand everything I can about them..<\/p>\n Over the years I’ve deleted thousands of otherwise excellent photos because they lack light in the eye – catch lights are often that important.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And why do the catch lights in her eye look… unusual?<\/p>\n\n