Red-Tailed Hawk w/ Prey

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Photographed last Friday in Half Moon Bay, CA. Thanks in advance. JR

Canon 40D, 500F4IS, Canon 1.4TC, 1/1250s, F8, ISO 400, Manual Exposure, Gitzo & Mongoose 3.5a

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Great action,pose....eye contact!!!

[Stu Bowie]

I like the head on posture, and good to see his catch. I would maybe darken the BG a tad. Well captured John.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose and good to see a bit of the environment. The prey adds to it. I would desaturate the yellows a few points and if in the original is not too much motion blur, I might sharpen the bird a bit more.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Great catch for both you and the hawk. The prey is a plus. Wonderful eye contact.

[paul leverington]

Hey John--Very cool. Very rare to see the western red tail get a post. A definite difference from the eastern redtail. By the by, at 1/1600 you'll pretty much not have any wing blur with the redtail--but thats second only to your intent. Beautiful reddish brown eyes. Are they that light in tone or did you have to bring them up in PS? Gotta see one of these someday hopefully. Very nice capture!

Paul

[Phil Ertel]

Great action here. The pose with the prey is very nice. I like the background as it give just enough detail to tell us of the habitat without being distracting. I agree with Axel's suggestions. One question; was this baited or natural. Baited doesn't bother me I am just curious. Thanks for sharing.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thank you all for the kind feedback.

Axel: the image certainly has a lot of motion blur but I am wondering where do you see the need for more sharpening? Just confused as I don't think one can get the wings sharp by more sharpening but maybe I am misunderstanding.

Paul: no special treatment for the eye. Maybe I'll post a closeup portrait of the same hawk tomorrow morning.

Phil: no baiting used. There are fields along the coast here where multiple and various raptors congregate in the fall/winter because of very high numbers of voles and mice. 2007 was epic in this regard and this year might be better than 2008. Anyway, this fellow caught three within an hour while I was watching...

JR

[Phil Ertel]

Thanks John. As said before I am OK with baiting but congratulations for capturing this action naturally.