Nankeen Kestrel

Ian McLachlan · Jan 20, 2018

Tried posting this once before but got so carried away with a title of 'Two Lizards' that the title came through and no lizards .So here goes again. She has just been given this long tailed skink by her mate .Then as usual told him to get lost. The skink was swung around for a little while and then finished off in under 2 minutes. Battled a bit with losing light in the evening .So quite a hefty crop.

Never seen it before but we had 4 pairs nesting within 200 metres of each other but high up so got bit lucky here. I liked the 2 lizards and the evening light on her. Background is sand patch in which she will have a bath if no predators around.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (Macintosh)

1DX
600mm. Mk II plus 1.4 III
1600 ISO
40% crop
5.6
Posting at under 600K i hope
C AND C Very welcome

Jonathan Spool · Jan 21, 2018

Great picture! You captured a moment that most photographers dream of, and nailed it as well!

sasan nejadi · Jan 21, 2018

nice shot Ian , good angle, excellent eye contact and nice BG are the positive points of your photo........The effect of Edit is on the left leg of the lizard ...TFS

Jonathan Ashton · Jan 21, 2018

Ian the image does not appear to have an embedded colour profile (I had to view in PS because the image is too large for my screen in the browser) when viewed at full size I get the impression it is showing some noise and a little lack of detail. I would suggest reducing the crop a little and or reducing image size because it is really a fine shot.

Randy Stout · Jan 21, 2018

Ian:

Really fine capture, love the shadow, colors.

As Jon mentioned, the IQ is suffering a bit from the crop, and I agree you could get by with a looser crop.

There is apparent noise showing up on the iris, and because we are drawn to the eye, it is more noticeable there.

Cheers

Randy

Juan Fernandez · Jan 21, 2018

Great shot! I really like the subject, the prey, the perch and even the harsh light giving context to the image. I only see noise (is it really noise?) in the iris, the rest of the image is clean.
For those not being able to see the whole image, try using the zoom, Ctrl - to zoom out and Ctrl + for zooming in. That is the Ctrl key and the plus or minus key at the same time. You can do it multiple times and adjust to your screen. Most screens now a days will support the new native 1920 resolution

Bill Dix · Jan 21, 2018

A fabulous pose by both Kestrel and Skink. Good comments above.

Raybel Robles · Jan 21, 2018

Great capture, the moment is just perfect for a photo. But I have to admit that there is just too much noise around the face and tail of the bird and bit of lack of details.

Daniel Cadieux · Jan 21, 2018

I agree with the comments above, but will add that I love the shadow of the lizard on the perch - pretty cool.

Glenn Pure · Jan 21, 2018

Excellent moment of capture and pose from the bird. Perch is great and background excellent too. I do agree with the comments made about a little softness, noise and the benefit of a looser crop.

Ian McLachlan · Jan 21, 2018

. Don't know what I did with the eye. Will keep at it till I work it out. Will try a smaller crop as well. Many thanks everyone for the comments,much appreciated.

David Salem · Jan 22, 2018

This is an awesome capture Ian!! Love the pose as he is looking at us with the skink in his beak and the BG color, perch, HA and shadow are fantastic. I do agree with the eye noise and I might try a bit looser crop. Well done Old Man!!

arash_hazeghi · Jan 22, 2018

Hi Ian, fabulous image. Was the RAW sharp here?

Ian McLachlan · Jan 22, 2018

Yes it was Arash, but i was trying to brighten up the eye and somehow produced a sort of pixelated retina. Any suggestions would be a great help. And it was as close as I dared to get, so she had a darkened the eye in the 20 odd frames I got of the action.

Frank Schauf · Jan 22, 2018

[FONT=&quot]Fantastic. Wonderful scene, colors and background, Ian.[/FONT]

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arash_hazeghi · Jan 23, 2018

Ian McLachlan said:
Yes it was Arash, but i was trying to brighten up the eye and somehow produced a sort of pixelated retina. Any suggestions would be a great help. And it was as close as I dared to get, so she had a darkened the eye in the 20 odd frames I got of the action.

shoot me the RAW should be an easy fix in DPP

Nankeen Kestrel

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