Cooper's Hawk Gives Chase

[Doug Brown]

I was at a pond photographing a pair of Kingfishers one morning when out of nowhere, a Cooper's Hawk swooped down and attacked one of the KFs. An incredible chase ensued! Things happened so quickly that I was lucky to get a few frames of the action; unfortunately I never got a frame with both birds in it.

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Canon 1D Mark IV, 600mm + 1.4x, f/6.3, 1/2500, ISO 640, manual exposure, hand held

[Joe Senzatimore]

Great catch. always good to be ready. Fine detail and the Hawks expression says it all.

[James Fuller]

Sounds like an exciting moment Doug. Even though it would have made for some great images, I'm glad the KF got away, as they are one of my favorites.

[Jim Fenton]

Knowing that you did this handheld makes it special as I sure as heck couldn't have...even on a tripod :)

Exposure and sharpness look good...perhaps you could have opened up the shadowed under-wing a bit with the dodge tool.

[Marina Scarr]

Good catch on this one, Doug, esp with the 600 & 1.4. Would love to watch you do that one day. The head on this raptor not as sharp as your usual.

[Mitch Carucci]

I like the expression, intensity & BG. Great pic.

[ramesh anantharaman]

I just love the angle and the Dof in this shot. awesome!!

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent Doug, love it. on my screen needs a tad more sharpening. excellent details

[Karl Egressy]

I like the angle, wing position and the intense look, Doug.

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

Remind me not to do any arm wrestling with you! That was quite a load to handhold.

He certainly does look intense. The framing compliments his pose well.

agree about the head just a bit soft.

I might tone down the brightest green area in front of the head just a smidge.

Cheers

Randy

[Jeff Parker]

Holy cow! 600 +1.4 TC handheld on a Cooper's in attack mode! I have tried more than once to get an image of one of these guys in action. Too fast for me.

While the sharpness is not optimal, it looks pretty good given the situation.

[Chris Kotze]

Super image well timed and captured

[Doug Brown]

Appreciate the feedback everyone. Here's a repost with more sharpening applied to the head. Is this any better? I've actually processed the image multiple times, trying to get the head sharpness just right.

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[arash_hazeghi]

repost looks very nice Doug!

[Mack Hicks]

Subtle improvement.
Great capture.