Redtailed Hawk (autumn scene)

[Mike Lentz]

Taken last weekend as the colors of the midwest Oak trees were changing.

http://www.pbase.com/mike_lentz/image/118292985.jpg

Nikon D300 ~ Nikkor 300mm ~
ISO 1250 ~ F/4 ~ 1/1600 sec ~ -1/3 EV ~ hand held

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Mike,
Very beautiful landing shot with great exposure and BG, colors are great, detail is there but IMO needs a bit more sharpening but that might just be my monitor.
Excellent photo TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mike, one of your best IMHO. Superb landing posture, with the full wingspread. This image has amazing colours, and good looking perch too. I agree, a touch of sharpening will work, and I would maybe darken the tail a tad. Killer BG. Congrats on an outstanding image.

[Mital Patel]

this is just a fantastic pose you've captured. nice colors and bg.
the only wish is to add some contrast as the image looks bit softer and with a thin glow layer.

[David Fletcher]

Beautiful shot Mike with a good range of colors and details. Some good suggestions could take it up a few more notches: (sort of from sublime, to ridiculously sublime, :):)).

[Tony Whitehead]

Great job, Mike. Lovely pose, colours and plumage detail. A slight contrast increase may be worth exploring. Sharpening mentioned.

[Fabs Forns]

Magnificent wingspread and great colors. I could go either way with the sharpening.

[John Goldman]

Great shot!

[Grace Scalzo]

Beautiful image, Mike. Field behind your house? Personally, I'd like it a hair sharper, but that's my taste. I hope you print this beauty.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Sharpness appears fine here. Love the pose! Is this a set-up or a chance encounter? Wondering as there is no mention of either. :)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose and setting. I might give it a bit more room and would tone down the highlights.

[Doug Brown]

Fantastic wing spread with nice detail; sharpness looks good on my laptop. The fall colors are awesome. I do agree that a contrast boost would help.

[Mike Lentz]

Good call on the contrast boost! Thanks!

Akos, it was a setup in an area as Grace described behind my house in a park preserve full of them.
Hi Grace! :)

[Steve Canuel]

This is excellent Mike. Super spread on the wings and tail feathers, great colors, nice landing pose by the bird, and great surroundings/BG. I also like the angle of the right wing rising in line with the branch.

[Simon Bennett]

Wonderfully lit, also like the wing and tail spread, and autumnal setting.

[Brian Sartor]

Beautiful image, Mike! Wonderful pose, perfect angle, nice soft light and the fall colors compliment the bird nicely. Congrats!

[Morkel Erasmus]

sharpness fine in my eyes too - what a great pose, exposure and colours!!

[Danny Laredo]

Brilliant timing in this one. Great pose.

[Marina Scarr]

What an awesome with the wings and tail spread. Lovely BG. Agree on a slight contrast boost but think the exposure looks good. Love the perch on which he is about to land with those gorgeous leaves. This capture tells a nice story.

[paul leverington]

Hi Mike. Well I have looked at this a couple of times and it has not been mentioned, but I cannot seem to reconcile the proportions of the bird in relation to the proportions of the branch. The hawk looks entirely too small compared to the leaves and branch that he is about to be landing on. If this is only an apparent observation, then so be it, but it immediately looked that way to me. Second the contrast on the bird does not match the contrast of the rest of the scene. So I'm assuming from that that some sort of selecting went on during post processing-and this observation is reinforced by the rather hard line edge around the entire bird. So I don't know if this was a composite and you need to address these issues, or just more finesse in whatever adjustments you did make.
All I can tell you is that when I opened the shot it hit me in the face like a brick that things did not look right. I hesitated to say anything cause all others didn't seem to see it the same way. I have seen about one million retail shots(literally) so that might have something to do with it.

Fall foliage and the redtail certainly rock when they come together in the same image though, so I like that a lot about the shot.

Hope you aren't offended by the honesty.

Paul