Prairie Falcon

Gallery: AvianPosted September 25, 20131,132 views14 comments

Earlier this past summer I found this unusually approachable juvenile male Prairie Falcon in the Centennial Valley of southwest Montana. It had been hunting grasshoppers and there's dried food on its bill. This image was taken vertically so I had very little room on the sides.

This banded falcon turned out to be pretty special to me. With the help of a friend I was able to track down the person who banded this bird and its siblings as chicks in California. He sent me photos of the young birds in the nest and of them being banded. I loved finding out more about the history of this falcon.

More here if you're interested.
http://www.featheredphotography.com/blog/2013/08/01/banded-prairie-falcon-update/

7D, 1/1250, f/6.3, ISO 400, 1.4 tc, shot from pickup window on 7/12/13, cropped to 61% of original image, exposure adjustment in ACR, sharpened bird and post, no additional processing or adjustments, natural light, not baited, set up or called in

Larger image provided

Comments/critique appreciated

Comments

14 comments

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on September 25, 2013 at 8:45 AM

Lovely pose and great techs on the shot Ron ! Always great when you can track this kind of bird - thanks for the story ! Cheers, Hans

Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments

Comment posted by Ralph Kerr on September 25, 2013 at 9:33 AM

Great pose, Sharp, and to top it off, a great story. Congrats

Registered on January 30, 2007, 369 Posts, 852 Comments

Comment posted by John Jeevaratnam on September 25, 2013 at 12:23 PM

Beautiful sharp shot Ron. I like the pose and the composition. I would have been tempted to clone out the bands on the feet. However given you tracked down the birds flight path they do add to the conversation. I suppose increasing the canvas size and cloning might have given you the horizontal composition too. Overall very nice image.

Registered on July 29, 2013, 112 Posts, 229 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Leggett on September 25, 2013 at 12:45 PM

Excellent techs on this one, Ron. Focus is spot-on and a nicely soft BG. As an option, I could see cropping to 4x5 from the top. Nice to see a post from you, haven't seen you around lately.

Registered on July 21, 2004, 706 Posts, 3233 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on September 25, 2013 at 2:50 PM

The most striking parts of this image are the pose and the background. The background is so complimentary to this image. I believe many photographers who are striving to reach the next level need to look at images like this and understand how important the background is. I'm not saying that every background has to be a soft, defocused background like this, I am saying that the background can break an image. In this case the background is a huge plus.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on September 25, 2013 at 3:37 PM

It's rare to get the backstory on a bird; congratulations!

This is a superb photo. Not only are these your usual impeccable techs; the pose is excellent, the composition strong and the background, as Keith noted, provides a complementary color palette. Master class work, Ron. Well done.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on September 25, 2013 at 4:08 PM

Excellent as posted. Nice to see you posting again.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on September 25, 2013 at 6:43 PM

A sweet action photo to continue the story about this bird Ron.

A Beauty!

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Martin Dunn on September 26, 2013 at 4:01 AM

Lovely photo Ron.
The falcon's pose is great and the detail is first rate. I like the catch light in the eye.
Composition wise I'd like a bit more space on the left side. but still a sweet shot. - the background history really adds to the shot and it must have been exciting to discover its story.

Registered on February 20, 2013, 198 Posts, 1011 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on September 27, 2013 at 8:56 AM

Very nice image and story. Excellent bg and pose. Just very pleasing to view. Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on September 27, 2013 at 1:51 PM

Ron this looks excellent and I do agree with Keith about the bg it really does add to the image.

Keith.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on October 4, 2013 at 10:00 PM

Just super on the light and the timing to get this great pose. Congrats on the pick, Ron-- just beautiful. And too cool to learn all about the bird AND get it's baby picture besides! That makes this field photography adventure fruitful, indeed.

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on October 6, 2013 at 7:55 AM

Beautiful pose and IQ Ron

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on November 5, 2013 at 10:05 PM

Great to see you posting again!
Sweet image - exceptional detail, pose, and lovely BG.
Congrats on the WP!
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments