You'hurt your neck doing that !!

[John Robinson]

Sparrow Hawk
This bird had been taking young sand martins from a large colony I worked on.
He suddenly saw something coming in over the hide from the back .
I couldn,t see it and he shot off. A few minutes later there's another potential martin grabber on site ! A carrion Crow
The red coloured earth is san d in an old red limestone quarry
D200
Sigma 100-500
640 ISO
250th @ f7
Crop from horizontal.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers
johnR</SPAN>

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Absolutely wonderful image Johnny. The look of intensity in those eyes. Beautiful light and like that the perch compliments the hawks coloring.

[Enrique Patino]

Great image Johnny. And it would be even better against a less distracting BG... Great neck stretch!

[Loi Nguyen]

Johnny, wonderful looking bird, good sharpness, detail, and good light. Love those eyes and the stretch neck. I'm Ozk with the BG. Loi

[christopher galeski]

nice one Johnny,I too on my patch,have watched sparrowhawks taking sandmartins,they wait till the sandmartins hover outside there nest holes,then make a strike,but I have not been lucky to take a decent image of one yet.

[Shawn Zierman]

Awesome portrait with a sweet neck crane. Would not change a thing here. The bird's expression/pose really takes the image up a notch. Was the perch coming out water? A suggestion would be to crop up from the bottom slightly to eliminate the way the bottom of the perch is joined by a (reflection?) of the perch in the lower left hand corner....

[John Robinson]

Thanks all
Shawn- yes its a quirk of CZM which I sometimes use for high pass sharpening.It puts a duplicate line around the bottom edge. I usually take it off. Missed this one Thanks
John

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the interesting pose, sharpness, details and exposure. Nice image John!

[Holger Leyrer]

I like the eye contact and the stretch neck. It is a wonderful pose. Details and colours works well.

[Neil Burton]

I have witnessed a sh taking crested tits on my patch and they are faster than light. This works for me matey.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

This one is all about the pose and the eye contact. And I always enjoys pictures with nice in-focus perches and talons showing.
I'm usually strive for blurred/oof backgrounds, but I've gotta say your natural BGs are growing on me John.
What's CZM?

[John Robinson]

Hi Sidarth
Yes if the pic is for a book on bird ID then a plain backdrop is sometimes what they want. I try to convey something else apart from the bird. Doesn't always work of course.
CZM is a bit of free software for focus stacking a series of pics- usually macro. It has a nice simple high pass sharpening system which works evenif you only put one pic in. I just happen to like it - quick and easy. Have a look at my stuff in the macro forum.
Cheers
John

[Iain Barker]

Hi Johnny

I saw this the other day and didn't get chance to comment. This is really nice and different to the usual perched sparrowhawk images. The IQ of the bird looks really good and I think you have captured the story you are trying to show well.

TFS
Iain

[John Robinson]

Thanks Iain
Some nasty ones tocome I,m affraid.:2eyes2:
John