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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

Brown Falcon

Photographed by

Greg Griffiths on Tue 8th May, 2018 and uploaded on Mon 28th Jun, 2021 .

Resolution

1800x1173

Viewed

393

46843

Comment

I captured this photo in May 2018 at a time when I was beginning my birdlife journey. I was excited to have captured the moment a Black-shouldered Kite slammed into my resident Brown Falcon and knocked her from her telegraph pole. After completing a spectacular comando roll she retreated to safety. Other than posting it to a social media page back then, I have kept it safe in the hope that I would learn to understand how to present it best from crop to post edit. With a couple of years of knowledge learned mostly from this Birdlife Photography group, I have bravely had another crack at treating the original RAW file. This time I ran the file through TOPAZ Sharpen on auto setting which I feel successfully treated lens movement, sharpen and noise. Other than that I have reduced highlights, increased shadow and reduced the blue saturation overall. These adjustments are minor. In order to present the subject a little closer I have minimally cropped out some of the telegraph pole below but feel if I crop it all out or just leave the stump of the pole, the main subject moves away from the centre and for me, the story of the photo also becomes lost. Perhaps I am too emotionally connected to the photo?

Equipment

Canon 80D
Sigma S 150-600mm
Hand Held

Location

Mount View, New South Wales

Keywords

female, in flight, behaviour/display

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Con Boekel	2021-07-01 08:42:34	Hi Greg Cracker! One suggestion is to go back to the first question: 'What am I trying to achieve with my photography?' You might be interested in having a look at the Tom Oliver Award entry 'Bird Photography for What?' For example, if your main concern is that global warming is going to force many bird species into extinction then having energy infrastructure in the image is core to the image not just a peripheral distraction. If your interest is an artistic composition then eliminating the birds altogether and cropping back to the power infrastructure would, IMO, come up with some interesting arrangements of shapes, textures and colours. If your interest is the behaviour of birds then I would be cropping the power infrastructure out. This would leave the question of how to arrange the birds in the picture space. What I would target is treating the two birds as a single circular shape and try apply the rule of thirds so that the the falcon's eye is two thirds of the way down the picture space and two thirds of the way to the right of the picture space. kind regards Con Boekel
Con Boekel	2021-07-01 08:47:20	I forgot to add that if the birds are going to be treated as a composition circle then experimenting with a square format might yield pleasing results.
Greg Griffiths	2021-07-03 09:09:24	--Thank you Con, for your comments and for providing some additional framework and inspiration for channeling my bird photography with greater purpose. I feel your Tom Oliver presentation will have a degree of influence on all who take the time to read it. Regarding this image, the ultimate objective for me here is to make the viewer feel what I felt in the moment of capture… the excitement of the clash left me with a raised heartbeat and short of breath. I have played around with a few crops and feel that as soon as I lose the telegraph pole the story becomes less clear as I witnessed it but to those that weren’t present perhaps that doesn’t matter. Many thanks for taking such a considered interest in this image..
Greg Griffiths	2021-07-03 17:02:47	----Oh and I agree with the square format without the power infrastructure distractions for 'bird behaviour', this is how I posted it initially on social media. It works that way.

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	210/283 in Critique Gallery
	24/28 by Greg Griffiths
	146/204 of Brown Falcon
	373/529 of Falcons
	22404/34374 Overall
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