Female Kestrel

[Steve Kaluski]

This was the last shot before she sat on the eggs. Once I start to edit, I will hopefully be able to post some different subjects, but not for a while.

Subject: Kestrel F (Falco tinnunculus)
Camera: Canon EOS R3
Lens: EF 500mm F/4L IS USM II + EXTENDER EF1.4xIII
Exposure: 1/2500 at f/8 ISO2500
Original format: Landscape, FF

All Raw captures perfectly exposed, confirmed by Raw Digger

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.

[William Dickson]

Very nice Steve. I get the feeling that I am there, looking at the bird. The BG colours suit the bird perfectly. Very nice 'soft' feather detail. Very good pose and HA. The OOF stanes gives a sense of depth to the image. I like it a lot.

Will

[Gabriela Plesea]

Steve - this is beautiful and to me as close to perfection as it gets

Well composed, great head angle, nice pose, natural colours, lovely BG.

Great techs and DoF just where it should be. The unusual 'perch' adds interest. PP looks effortless as usual

Superb work, so looking forward to more from you! Any chance we might get to see some fledgelings at some stage?

Warmest regards,

[kevin Hice]

Boy Steve you pulled this one out of the hat. What a beauty. Colors are so great and soft. Like Will said its like you are there that is the first thing I thought. Your processing is fantastic. Wish mine was half as good. TFS.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Will, thanks for popping by and posting a comment.

I was lucky with the light, but also can influence where the Kestrels go too and can maximise the location. In addition there is now even less work applied and the raws are just so easy to now process based on camera tweaks and PP, so less is more. Detail is exceptional, but using EF lens there is no difference in IQ and I recently picked up another lens for a fraction of the RF lens and the sharpness and IQ is on a par. I had on order the 200-800 on order, but its pants and reverted back to the MKII I sold you. So don't think oh I need to go to RF, depending on your lens you may find the older stuff is better, albeit I now have quite a collection of lens which was a beast to bring across.

Hope all is well with you and the shoulder is OK now.


Cheers
Steve

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, long time no see.

I think we both have been lucky with our camera tweaks delivering more, but reviewing some of the raws, its the depth now that is coming out far more I hope, so Im really happy making the changes before this trip. To that point, the images could be very beneficial for next year.

Superb work, so looking forward to more from you! Any chance we might get to see some fledgelings at some stage?

I'm going back in just over a weeks time, who knows what may come out, but it would be nice to see the young Kestrels, but the adults are nailing the jackdaws constantly. Hope you get a chance to do some shooting soon, or some from your K trip ie LBR with some nice PP.

Have a lovely evening, I'm missing the Hyenas and Lions calling at night.

Steve

[Steve Kaluski]

Boy Steve you pulled this one out of the hat. What a beauty. Colors are so great and soft. Like Will said it's OW like you are there that is the first thing I thought. Your processing is fantastic. Wish mine was half as good. TFS.

WOW, thanks Kevin, I'm glad you like it, content is perhaps a tad pedestrian, but this year I have spent a lot of time reevaluating both camera and PP as I tend to do, which I'm hoping in the coming months will start to come through more, but still keeping the cornerstone of all my WF the same, its just making some subtle changes and tweaks, but committed to shooting in a different way based on the camera set up.

It does help with large ares of low frequency detail ie the BKG and high frequency detail in the subject, but with minimal NR you retain so much more and avoid over sharpening because the NR has flatted the detail.

The AF for both R5 & R3 just kept nailing the captures and where it missed was either down to me, or something I hadn't expect to past, having only a split second to get the capture, you will understand more when some images are finally posted in Wildlife.

Thanks again.
Steve