Balancing act

[Steve Kaluski]

Subject: Kestrel M (Falco tinnunculus) Baited
Camera: Canon EOS R3
Lens: RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM + EXTENDER RF1.4x
Exposure: 1/2000 at f/10 ISO4000
Original format: Landscape, almost FF

Steve


Note: The subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behaviour of the subject.

The mouse is dead and bred for snakes and I cannot see any difference between this and using sound recordings. It is now help the food intake for the female who is on the nest with eggs.

[kevin Hice]

Steve a wonderful image. Well processed. For me the darkness of the background adds immensely to the subject.The vignetting draws your eye to the subject. TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Thank you Kevin, much appreciated.

It's all about separating the subject and defining what works to help draw the eye in. Having a very muted backdrop as the light was crap, really helped and it just pumped the subject nicely. You are doing this with your subjects too, no busy backdrops which just easily elevates the subject, something Dan C is a master of, after all these years.

FYI there isn't a vignette, just played with the light and keeping the BKG simple it works and isn't then competing as I mentioned.

Will you be posting the Stag in the snow????

Cheers
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot, am I sensing a slight change in you presentation or is it just the ambient conditions? Your recent images seem to be a little less punchy compared to previous? Anyway it looks good, details and action make for good interest.

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks Jon, as I said previous, I’m just looking at things differently. Nothing massive and with the changes to the cameras there might be more ‘punchy’ stuff, I don’t know, but it’s still endeavouring to give the subject prominence and not to allow the environment to compete. The colours here are faithful, especially with the weather we had for the first quarter, but then I was away for half of that.