Red Tailed Hawk in Golden Light

The Red Tailed Hawk is one of the most common raptors in Southern California, but hey seem to be quite difficult to approach. This image is a relative large crop (4.5 M pixels left), but I love the golden light here. I made a mistake by not anticipating where he would jump off a light pole, so was a bit further away. They live locally, so I will get to try again easily.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/2000
F5.6
ISO-800
Handheld
Manual exposure
+1 1/3 EV Evaluative Metering off the Blue sky

Would appreciate your comemnts on sharpness and exposure.

thanks

Loi

Hi Lori. I can certainly appreciate these magnificent raptors. The light is beautiful and the body/head angle are good. It's a shame that the back wing's position is at an unattractive position but I am glad that you will have more opportunities with these RTHs. Eventually you will nail it. :)

Good try on this one, Loi. Agree with Amy on the rear wing position. Exposure looks spot on but not seeing too many details. Head looks sharp and good look at the near underwing.

I wish the head was a tad brighter. I guess you lost some detail with the large crop. Looks sharp to me.

Looks pretty good for the large crop, wish the far wing was in a better position. Looking forward to more.

Beautiful image with nice under-wing pattern.Nice lights,very good HA and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

Pretty light and detail on the body. An image I have yet to get. I wish for better wing position though