# BJIF and a Kestrel



## coastalconn (Oct 14, 2015)

Saw a bunch of Blue Jays flying around this morning.  I decided to play around with them..  Thanks for looking and comments welcome..

1



Blue Jay in flight 10_14 3 by Kristofer Rowe, on Flickr

2



Blue Jay in flight 10_14 2 by Kristofer Rowe, on Flickr

3



Blue Jay in flight 10_14 1 by Kristofer Rowe, on Flickr

4



Blue Jay in flight 10_14 4 by Kristofer Rowe, on Flickr

5 I was super psyched about this one.  These little raptors are freaking fast.  1 and done...



American Kestrel Liftoff 10_14 by Kristofer Rowe, on Flickr


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## jkzo (Oct 14, 2015)

Nice....Kris...


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## JacaRanda (Oct 14, 2015)

Okay now you are just showing off.   1 & 3 are my favorites and it has nothing to do with the color of the background and it's Bough Kay


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## Rob5589 (Oct 14, 2015)

#3 is awesome the way the far side wing is splayed open.

Maybe you can post some of your crappy shots so we know you are human like the rest of us


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## baturn (Oct 14, 2015)

Excellent! The kestrel is super cool, but #1 is my favorite by quite a large margin.


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## dannylightning (Oct 14, 2015)

great shots.


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## beagle100 (Oct 15, 2015)

nice bluejay BIF shots


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## BillM (Oct 15, 2015)

I'm still convinced Kestrel are related to leprechauns and unicorns so that must be a fake


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## coastalconn (Oct 16, 2015)

JacaRanda said:


> Okay now you are just showing off.   1 & 3 are my favorites and it has nothing to do with the color of the background and it's Bough Kay


But, but Bough Kay is spelt Bouquet 



Rob5589 said:


> #3 is awesome the way the far side wing is splayed open.
> 
> Maybe you can post some of your crappy shots so we know you are human like the rest of us


I'm actually a bot.. Don't worry, in the words of Tony Northrup, take tons of pictures and delete most of them 


BillM said:


> I'm still convinced Kestrel are related to leprechauns and unicorns so that must be a fake


Lol, more real than Nikon announcing a pro DX camera....


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## BillM (Oct 16, 2015)

Still waiting on that D400 announcement lol


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## dannylightning (Oct 17, 2015)

BillM said:


> I'm still convinced Kestrel are related to leprechauns and unicorns so that must be a fake




those are fictional creatures,  i think kris has a machine that generates holograms of birds,  that is how he gets all those good photos..


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## PhotoriousMe (Oct 17, 2015)

Wow......so crisp yet so crisp.

Dave


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## Jim Walczak (Oct 18, 2015)

I think the blue jay shots are brilliant...great color, great use of DOF...right on the money.  Personally however I just don't care for the kestrel shot...it's a great head-on pose, however the nearly pure white back ground just severely detracts from the image IMO.  Likewise, the shot seems to lack the sharp focus of the other images, particularly around the kestrel's face.  I also find the strong side lighting to be rather distracting...although I'm not really sure if it's a matter of how the shot was processed or if it was simply over-exposed (hard to tell). You're correct in that these are insanely fast birds and the shot looks like a good attempt, however compared with the others, to me it really comes up short.


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## shefjr (Oct 19, 2015)

Great shots as always Kris! Comparatively speaking do you find it any more or less difficult in shooting these guys as opposed to your osprey? I assume the smaller birds would be a little tougher just because I would think they are quicker.


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## Derrel (Oct 19, 2015)

The Jays...does this post have_ anything at all _to do with how well Toronto is doing in major league baseball?


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## Tuckerjr (Oct 19, 2015)

Very well done !


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## coastalconn (Oct 19, 2015)

Rob5589 said:


> Maybe you can post some of your crappy shots so we know you are human like the rest of us


According to the guy below this I already did... 



Jim Walczak said:


> I think the blue jay shots are brilliant...great color, great use of DOF...right on the money.  Personally however I just don't care for the kestrel shot...it's a great head-on pose, however the nearly pure white back ground just severely detracts from the image IMO.  Likewise, the shot seems to lack the sharp focus of the other images, particularly around the kestrel's face.  I also find the strong side lighting to be rather distracting...although I'm not really sure if it's a matter of how the shot was processed or if it was simply over-exposed (hard to tell). You're correct in that these are insanely fast birds and the shot looks like a good attempt, however compared with the others, to me it really comes up short.


Thanks for your thoughts.



shefjr said:


> Great shots as always Kris! Comparatively speaking do you find it any more or less difficult in shooting these guys as opposed to your osprey? I assume the smaller birds would be a little tougher just because I would think they are quicker.


They are quite a bit tougher.  The 7D M2 has a 15 point AF mode that actually works great for the smaller birds.  If you can get them in the viewfinder and lock them in, the camera tracks them pretty well



Derrel said:


> The Jays...does this post have_ anything at all _to do with how well Toronto is doing in major league baseball?


Baseball... hmm.  I vaguely remember that sport... I used to watch it quite a bit, but with chef life and wandering around photographing birds, processing, etc.. I don't have a long enough attention span anymore for 3-4 hour games


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## beagle100 (Oct 20, 2015)

PhotoriousMe said:


> Wow......so crisp yet so crisp.
> 
> Dave



crispier


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## Raj_55555 (Oct 21, 2015)

#1 & #3, nothing amazes me anymore when I open your threads!


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## FITBMX (Oct 22, 2015)

I nominate #3 for POTM! Not saying that the others don't deserve it, they are all incredible!!! 

October 2015 POTM Nomination Thread | Photography Forum


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## coastalconn (Oct 22, 2015)

FITBMX said:


> I nominate #3 for POTM! Not saying that the others don't deserve it, they are all incredible!!!
> 
> October 2015 POTM Nomination Thread | Photography Forum


Thank you very much!


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