This one goes way back to January 1st. This Kestrel at Ridgefield NWR was very cooperative all last winter, but it had this horrible habit of perching on the “Area Closed” signs along the tour route. When I processed it, I decided to get cute and cleaned up the sign and changed the wording. I posted it in Human and Fauna shortly thereafter. When I was looking at it today for posting it here, I found the plain foggy sky background a bit too boring, so I took another frame I’d shot of a tree in the fog and slid it in above the background layer in PS. Then I added some lens blur and reduced opacity until it hopefully just adds a bit of variety to the background.
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 516 mm, hand held balanced on car window, f/9, 1/640, iso 1250, manual exposure. See description for background and sign replacement. Taken January 1st at Ridgefield NWR at 11:58 am under still foggy skies.
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I love it, David. Very witty. I know exactly that feeling about bird perching on those signposts. Great job on the lettering and great job on the composite. Very subtle and very classy.
Dennis, the details in the Kestrel are great, I can count the feathers. Your compositing efforts look perfect and do create a fun and interesting image. I’ll bet the folks at Ridgefield love this image.
I love the “over the shoulder” pose of this magnificent bird. Love the creativity too - the bg is perfect, never would have known. Had me with the sign too!
