Manchester Harris hawk

[Ivan Ellison]

Not sure if this will be allowed- if not please remove.
An escapee/releasee now living wild in a Manchester park. It has no jesses on but still has the leather rings where they would have been attached. It is making a healthy dent in the rat numbers. It ignores the squirrels and in fact was chased off its perch by one. Not a bird for the purists but a lovely bird to watch and photograph. Hope to get some of it actually making a kill this winter if he hangs around.
Cropped slightly, warmed up a little, sharpened twice for the web. blur tool to bg.
Canon 1D mkIV
Canon 500 f4 is
ISO 800
1/500 sec
f4

[Nancy Bell]

The bird is lovely and it is ok to post an escapee. Good of you to mention it. I find the background very busy and distracting in many ways. The tones range from very dark to bright white & the top branches have too much detail and are very heavy for a pleasing bkgd. If the hawk hangs around you might get some chances with a less busy bkdg.

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp with a good exposure and as Nancy said, captives are OK. But the image has many problems. Dark above bright below almost never works. The big dark branch behind the head is an image killer. Lastly, the bird is turned away from us and a bit away from the light.

[Ivan Ellison]

Nancy/Art, thanks for your comments- the more i look at it, you are both right about it not working. This is the reason I started to post on here- to learn more and look at images with a different thought process. The pic was posted more out of desperation of not taking anything decent for a whiile. It has certainly made me look more at the Bg and the image as a whole. I will work at it and hopefully get some more shots of him before he eats all the rats and leaves. Thanks again.

[Arthur Morris]

You are most welcome Ivan. Having an open mind is the surest way to improve quickly!