Red Shouldered Hawk

[Anne Bellenger]

Red shouldered hawk in rural Highlands County. Canon 10D, 100-400L IS lens. Handheld. Processed in Photoshop CS2. Hawk was watching a mouse on the ground in weeds. Mouse was caught. Hawk flew away to the woods with the mouse. I took this from my car. Was very close. The hawk ignored me giving me a chance for a good shot.

[Cheryl Flory]

Anne, I like how you blurred the background, and have such nice colors. Your subject looks sharp, but it would be easier to tell if it was bigger. It would have been nice if the sun was lower and less harsh, and if you could have seen the face better. I'd like to see more images of this hawk, if you have more. Thanks for posting this one, Anne.

[Julie Kenward]

Anne, it would help us if you posted the other data as well (aperture, speed, camera mode, AWB, etc.)

To me, this looks really underexposed. I downloaded the image and tried to open it up with a shadow/highlight adjustment and it was even too dark to make a dent in it. Even though the bird is exposed pretty decently, see that deep shadow on his face? That, combined with the very dark BG, really shows the exposure is off. You can't even make out his eye and that's not good as we love eye contact with the birds.

I understand you were 'on the fly' when you took this but bracketing your exposure might have given you a better chance to get the image right. Try that next time when you have harsh lighting and see if you don't get something with a little better overall exposure.

Good focus on the bird but the HAP will get ya for the head angle!

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Nice capture on this lovely bird. Julie said it very well regarding the tech's of the shot.
Keep it up.
Congrats,

[denise ippolito]

Anne, Julie covered everything. Your shot is nice and I love red-shouldered hawks I'd be thrilled to have that shot in my book!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Anne - julie has it covered - tech details would cetainly help - I think the light here was your main issue - SOFT light is the key.

Nice looking bird.
:)

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Anne Agree with suggestions Remember to post at the max size so its easier to evaluate.

If you see a species you have not photographed got for the record image then work for the keeper. The head angle is a big deal, in the case of your bird the face would have been illuminated If possible do post a larger size of this one in this same thread as a reply !!

[Anne Bellenger]

I did post a larger size but it was turned down. On my web site I use 800 pixels width. I tried 600 here but that was turned down so settled on 400 (I think)

[Anne Bellenger]

I usually try to go for behavior rather than "classic" type bird pics. I watched the hawk and had the camera set for continuous shooting so there are many shots somewhere in my files. It's a personal thing, but I like the bg separated from the subject. The image may be dark on your computer because of my prefs on my MacBookPro. Also I use Adobe Gamma to calibrate and that is an old method. I think that contributes to the dark appearance.