Harris's Hawk

[Shawn Marques]

This Harris's hawk belongs to a fellow falconer and the image was created in mid-morning, while out hawking in Sebring, FL. The anklets, jesses and telemetry were cloned out and a slight vignette was added. Your thoughts on this image are appreciated. Thanks for looking!


Canon 40D, Canon EF 600mm F4 IS USM + 1.4X TC
1/2000s @ f/8.0, ISO 1250, 840mm
Gitzo carbon fiber tripod, Wimberely head

[Jeff Nadler]

Shawn, I see some nice positives on this image. The burred background vegetation for me is not a distraction but instead adds depth nicely. The pose is regal. teh perch is a step above a typical branch. My only suggestion to further improve it would be to lighten up the darkish head a bit. I would use what ever method to select just the head and apply curves or levels and see if it can lighten up, but only without leaving a visible border.

[Lana Hays]

Shawn
I really like the composition....and the look back of the hawk. The colors are so wonderfully rich. There is a smoothness about this image that has a nice "painterly" appearance.....very pleasing. Perhaps a touch of touch of lightening would bring out a little more detail in the very dark areas....but just a touch.

[Sean McMahon]

Wow, at ISO 1250, the 40D does exceptionally well.

[Shawn Marques]

Yes the 40D does well but the high ISO was by accident. I was checking my ISO and hit the dial by accident without realizing it. errrrrrr!

[Jim Neiger]

Hi Shawn,

I like this image alot. I'm a big Harris Hawk fan, but I have zero images of this bird. I like the pose you've captured here, and like Jeff, I like the oof vegetation. It did seem a bit dark and a touch soft to me thought, so I selected the bird using a quick mask and applied a little S/H too and sharpened it a bit more.

[Gayle Clement]

I love the hawk and that curved branch is a real plus. Jim's recommendations are good ones.

[Shawn Marques]

Thank you so much, Jim. I was not very aggressive on lightening and sharpening because I was seeing a lot of noise from the high ISO. In fact, I kept darkening the image because of it. But it looks great- thanks for the boost of confidence I was lacking!

These are magnificent birds and I am lucky to have the opportunity to photograph falconry raptors from time to time. It is too bad they are not found in FL in the wild. My wife is a falconer (she flys a RTH) and we have a good network of several falconer friends around the state. also get many images of wild and free raptors but these trained birds are great for practice because of the re-takes ops!

Thanks again, for taking it upon yourself to improve my image! ~Shawn

[Shawn Marques]

I love the hawk and that curved branch is a real plus. Jim's recommendations are good ones.
Hi Gayle. I love the branch, too. The hawk was hunting and landed on this branch. She couldn't have picked a better spot!
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