While out hunting for a Ferruginous Hawk to shoot this morning (got skunked) I came across this handsome male Kestrel perched on an old utility pole. I’m guessing pretty old. Joaquin Murrietta used to ride this road back in the gold rush days.
I’m wondering about the cropping?
Is this a composite: No
D500, Nikon 200-500 lens, Nikon 1.4 TC, 1/4000th, f 8.0, hand held, cropped to 2120 x 2782, AI Clear.
Not bad for Second Prize! Wonderful detail and great pose, and the perch is a perfect match! I’d suggest toning down the sky just a bit – a small desaturation would probably do it. It’s a pretty color but that’s a problem for such a large area with no features, in that it competes with the subject.
Bringing down Highlights in raw conversion in LR/ACR can cause a saturation increase in a sky.
Hi Dave:
I don’t mind the crop. It seems like you probably don’t have a lot of different options. The shooting angle is not helping, the size of the utility pole is not ideal, but the blue sky is really a distraction. I looked at this image in PS, removed a lot of blue color cast, toned down the pole and changed the intensity an luminance of the sky. Here’s the result. See what you think.
Nice job on the detail in the Kestrel and pole, Dave. I like what Keith did to the sky, though I’d probably go even further to tone it down. The steep angle is a bit of a problem and the only real solution is to back up and accept having the bird smaller in the frame. I’ve often thought the ideal bird photography vehicle would be one of those vans they convert for utility vehicles with a lift bucket and some floor level ports for the low angle shots.
