RL Hawk, a hand-holding tale

There are not many birds in Wyoming other than birds of prey. Lots of those by the side of the road. You can speed by them at 70, not even a flinch of the eyes, but hey, don't slow down and G. forbid stop, because they are gone, giving you the best butt shot you ever had.

I normally like to use a tripod for comfort and protection to my back, but in this case, the only way was to hand hold, stop the car a mile away and hope to get lucky.
600/4 hand held, no hood (lighter and less intimidating), about 75% of captured fame. No flash.

Model: Canon EOS 7D
ISO: 500
Aperture: 8
Shutter: 1/3200
Program: Manual

Which you got a little more light on the head but you take what you can get.. I would keep it for sure !
Sounds like you had a great time.

Lou

HI Fabs, I like your placement of the bird in frame. The view of the wing is very nice. The bird is nice and sharp and the colors look good on my monitor. I wish the head were angled a little more toward us.

Personally I think it's impressive to HH a 600 and capture anything, never mind a crossing light phase male (?) Rough-legged Hawk, who is showing off how he got his name. Love the detail in the feathers, right down to the primaries. Super :)
Cheers
Gail

Wing position, sharpness and complementing BG look great. I only wish for more head turn. What does "SS Hawk" stand for? I'm not familiar with this species.

I believe it is Sharp Shinned Axel.

Fabs, this looks like a Rough-legged Hawk to me.

Love the story Fabs, and I feel your pain :)

I think this a rough-legged hawk, light morph.

When there are two of you, you can drop one person off before the bird, then have the other drive by without stopping, then turn around and approach from the other direction. The bird may fly toward the first person. You can reverse it if needed depending on the light, direction of the road, etc. The best result is when the bird flies towards you and into the light. Of course, the bird may fly at right angles of both of you giving the possibility of nice images as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim Neiger

When there are two of you, you can drop one person off before the bird, then have the other drive by without stopping, then turn around and approach from the other direction. The bird may fly toward the first person. You can reverse it if needed depending on the light, direction of the road, etc. The best result is when the bird flies towards you and into the light. Of course, the bird may fly at right angles of both of you giving the possibility of nice images as well.

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Great idea, Jimmy, thanks, although I think they all know our car :cool::cool:

Thanks, guys, I'll edit the tittle.

It sounds like you did a good job just getting a frame of this guy, let alone this well. I think lightening the eye area will improve this a bit. Maybe its just me but it feels strange giving suggestions to someone who has taught all of so many pp lessons. Jims idea is one I will remember as our hawks are just as skittish. TFS.
Todd

Actually, I re-processed this this morning and forgot I had lightened the face in the first round with the file. I just don't trust the laptop too much so I went ahead and messed it up :)
It will be fixed! Thanks for pointing that out all of you.

Hey Fabs, you dont have to tell me about speeding past birds of prey at the roadside - I experienced just that these holidays. However, I did manage a few sitting on a fence post before flying off into the afternoon sky. I like the extended wing position, detail and sharpness. If this was mine, I would darken the BG a tad.

Nice looking under wing, I'd wish for better HA. Jim's idea is a great one:). Birds of prey in NZ are just the same. I tried stopping near 1 last weekend. No chance!:D

Very nice image Fabs. The underwing detail looks very good and the overall sharpness also. Agree a better HA would be better but reading your story its sure not an easy one to get perfect.

Well done handholding. I tried my friend's D3 and 600VR and my arms were shaking a little. :(

Wonderful capture and good groundwork on this hawk.

Nice wing position and placement. Awesome job at hand holding.

Ditto comments, well captured for handheld and super detail and colours

Well done Fabs HH I love the underwing feather detail.