It’s been three years since I first discovered this peregrine falcon nest atop a sea stack along the Northern California coast. The weather has been stormy for a change the last few days and this morning I almost decided not to go out due to overcast skies. I opted to head out anyway and found a pair of peregrine falcons taking heed of social distancing. After just a few minutes I glanced down and by the time I glanced back up, the male was in flight. I immediately scrambled to try and get some in-flight images but within just 30 seconds, the male was on top of the female. This was incredibly rewarding for me as I have never captured mating behavior.
The first is a tight crop with just basic adjustments. The second is full frame to give a better sense of place and the environment with basic adjustments and some burning to the BG to bring out a bit of detail.
I feel good about the overall image but question if I should do anything to the blah background? It’s blah due to bumping my exposure so the subject was properly exposed at the sacrifice of shifting the BG to the far right side of the histogram without being overexposed.
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Keith, that is amazing that you were able to witness and capture these falcons in mating behavior. The beak open and the head turn of the female is a nice addition. I would have been happy to get the two sitting on the rocks, which is pretty good. I am not bothered by the background. They stand out nicely against it. I like the orange color on the rocks.
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A very rare capture Keith. The contrast is wonderful so I am good with the background sky. In fact it keeps me focus on the main subject. I bet you did a self wow when you look a peak on the camera screen. I like the second image as well and these group well because of the story behind when they are both seen.
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Thank you @Shirley_Freeman & @Dean_Salman for the reaffirmation that especially with a strong main subject (animal behavior) that you can overthink processing. My intuition (though feeble) said to expose for the main subject and not worry about the BG like you might in a grand landscape image.
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Great poses on the fist image, Keith. Given the nice foreground and superb detail and action, I wouldn’t worry about the pain Jane sky. Anything you did would probably just add a distracting element.
The second image is a nice environmental image and the two birds add interest While it doesn’t have the impact of the first image, if you were going to do a story on Peregrines, it’s one you’d probably want to help set the scene. Given that I’m on the wet side of the mountains in Washington, the sky looks wonderful to me.
Excellent detail and I like the setting. The background is fine and looks natural and the falcons stand out nicely against it.
@Dennis_Plank please send any stray clouds to NorCal, we could use the moisture!
Incredible! Great story
IMO, absolutely not - background needs to be the ways it is - to separate the activity from the rest
And of course, the colorful rocks add. Love the framing too, btw
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Nice to find this behavioral expression. Excellent detail. I like the way the liken color mirrors the colors on the beak and feet. Well composed giving a good sense of the environment. In the future, please include your exposure information (iso, lens, f-stop, percentage of full frame, etc. so that will we may have more information with respect to critique)
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Thank you, David! Here is the original uncropped image for a crop comparison. Exposure details are: 1/3200 sec, f5.6, ISO 1250, focal length was 840mm (600mm + 1.4x TC). I could have dropped the ISO down but the sun was continually going in and out behind the clouds yesterday morning. I generally like to shoot 1/1000 shutter speed or more for BIF.
Great action, I love the look on the female’s face. It held up well for the good sized crop.
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