Lovely photo. Which lens do you use? I have a 14 - 150mm and am researching some with longer reach for my 4/3 system (impotus being birding). Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, I think using the software is going to be the most beneficial thing I focus on for quite some time.

I really appreciate the offer, but at the moment I am focusing on feedback and advice, rather than demonstration. Being at such an early stage I would like to see my own editting progression (as advised elsewhere, I plan on putting this image to the side until I am more confident with subtle editing on such an image).

It was shot in RAW, but I am incredibly new to editing in software not on my phone. Another comment mentioned curves and levels which seems to be the route to go, but it is very daunting going that route for the first time. I intend to do a little research and have a go at lifting the shadows just enough to ideally see more of the face (as they are the lighter feathers anyway).

Edit: This worked, wasn’t sure how to upload an image inside a comment.

Oh, a lot here definitely have the forked tails here. But typically when they are less ‘fanned-out’ as in this picture.

Edit: I just looked at some of the other pictures and most do have the wide fanned tail, maybe because they were flying slowly, scanning the ground for something (there must have been something interesting nearby as there were a few around).

We have a lot where I live, I am by no means an expert but it may because it was making a hard turn.

Thank you. This is probably the advice I needed to hear. I know I will need to come back to photos again as my skills improve, but because this photo was so incredibly lucky I wanted to really lean into it.

Thank you, I did look at them briefly, but everything went very weird, very quickly, more research is definitely required. Do you recommend any key resources?

If you listen to podcasts I recommend S2E1 of ‘How Other Dad’s Dad with Hamish Blake’ Joe Brumm, the creator of bluey, is a guest.

I also recommend the podcast generally also.