A few kestrel shots

[neogfx]

Jeez I need a bigger lens. These were done at 300mm. 3 and 4 are cropped quite a bit.
Anyway, comments welcome.

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

[perylousdemon]

Don't we all need better zoom lenses? Mine only goes to 210mm, so feel lucky. Anyway...these are nice shots of such a fast raptor, but the background in the last two is rather noisy. Other than that, good job. :thumbsup:

 

[neogfx]

Yeah unfortunately because I cropped the images the 400 ISO they were shot at wasn't enough to retain enough detail in the backgrounds.
Going to revisit the location as there are often kestrels and buzzards there and try to use a lower ISO.

 

[perylousdemon]

Well, here they are with the noise reduced, if you're interested.

 

[teishu]

its a shame about the angle, i would think coming towards you at an angle would be slightly better, but good photos non the less.

 

[Antarctican]

It's really interesting to me to see how it's searching for food below, especially in that last shot with its head turned.

 

[neogfx]

Well, here they are with the noise reduced, if you're interested.

Cheers, what did you use to do this may I ask?

 

[lostprophet]

long lens or not they are still good shots, and unlike a lot of my bird of prey shots yours are in the wild!!

The only bird of prey I've managed to get shots of in the wild are Red Kites

 

[perylousdemon]

Neat Image. It's available as both a standalone program and a Photoshop plug-in. It has literally worked wonders on some of my images, especially scanned prints. You can download the demo version here: http://www.neatimage.com/download.html

 

[perylousdemon]

I wish I didn't live in the suburbs. We only have the occasional red-tailed hawk around here, and I never have my camera. *sighs* That's why I like the aviary so much.

 

[Johnw7127]

Wow! Great shots! I reallllly love number 4! It's such a magnificent bird!

 

[emogirl]

shots in the wild like this are so hard...most of the best bird shots come from sanctuaries or wildlife habitats in urban areas where the birds are accustomed to people adn in a better shooting range. Still great shots..beautiful bird! Its nice to see them in a natural setting with so much landscape!

 

[neogfx]

Yeah unfortunately because I cropped the images the 400 ISO they were shot at wasn't enough to retain enough detail in the backgrounds.
Going to revisit the location as there are often kestrels and buzzards there and try to use a lower ISO.

Sorry, this is a mistake, it should read 1600 ISO.