Red-tailed Hawk

[Mike Veltri]

This RT was photographed at noon, which is not an ideal time to be photographing birds.
Good thing the sun is not too strong in the winter, and if you watch your angles you can avoid alot of shadows.
The ground was snow covered which is ideal for lighting up the bottom side.
As this is a launch shot, I decided to leave the debris from the perch in the image.
The tight crop is because the bird filled the frame so why add canvas.

Flight

Canon 1Dx - 500mm F/4 IS
1/3200s @ F/8 ISO 400 HH

Thanks for looking,
Mike Veltri

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

The IQ is just awesome Mike! Super wing position and the chips of wood flying off from the take off is cool!

[Nick Palmieri]

Very nice capture. Great IQ. Debris and extended claws add a lot of interest. Nice job on this one.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice take-off pose, and the techs look great. Winter does offer that advantage of photographing at times we would not during the summer! I'm happy you left the debris there. Looks like you had to deal with compression issues as the eye and contour of the face seemingly has artifacts around them.

[Travis Reid]

Excellent launch, it would of been nice if the hawk was looking at you..

[Loi Nguyen]

Mike, this is a Superb launch shot. Love the explaination of the effect of light reflecting fom the snow. How did you manage to get so close to a RTH for it o fill the frame? Did you use a blind?

[Mike Veltri]

No blind required for this bird. It has been in a busy location frequented by people and dogs for a few years that I know of, so it does not have any fear of people.

Thanks for the comments Loi,

Mike

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mike, Im impressed. If this is a take off/launch shot, then you left it very fine as a FF, and not cutting anything off. Love all the detail on the RT, sharp, and the overall exposure looks good too. The flying debris from the perch puts this over the top. Very well timed.

[Diane Miller]

Absolutely incredible -- pose, lighting, IQ, BG color that complements the bird -- drop-dead gorgeous!

[Dave Leroy]

Well done catching the action and the flying debris adds a lot. I like how the tail is angled this way for nice viewing. I am not sure I can see the compression issues Daniel refers to. I might be seeing a bit of noise right tight to the hawk from a bg NR layer.
Very nice photo.

[Raymond Lee]

Nice capture of the take off! The debris really adds drama/impact to the take off. The bird is nicely exposed and sharp too!

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the tight composition, details, sharpness, debris and complimentary BG. Excellent image Mike!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Mike, Can you post the original full frame?

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent! love the details and the dynamic pose.

The image appears to have been compressed quite a bit, it is only 100KB.

[Satish Ranadive]

Wonderful flight shot.Love the pose, complimentary colors and talons.
I like the debris from the perch, which adds to the beauty of image.

Regards,
Satish.

[Ivan Ellison]

Love everytning about it, great detail / exposure, the bits of wood give it a real feel of taking off as opposed to just flying past you. Stunningly sharp, the talons and eye really stand out.

[Mike Veltri]

Hi Mike, Can you post the original full frame?

Sorry no can do...
I only saved the image as a psd file after cropping and adjustments. With thousand of images of this guy, I don't keep too many.
Not sure if its the file size or the compression issues that some are seeing, that you ask for a repost?
I save to the web, with a quality of around 6 or 7 what ever photoshop defaults too for the web.

Cheers,
Mike

[Mike Veltri]

excellent! love the details and the dynamic pose.

The image appears to have been compressed quite a bit, it is only 100KB.

Maybe its due to saving for the web?
I save for web at CS6's default setting which the quality I think is 6?

Thanks for the comments,
Mike

[Arthur Morris]

Sorry no can do... I only saved the image as a psd file after cropping and adjustments. With thousand of images of this guy, I don't keep too many. Not sure if its the file size or the compression issues that some are seeing, that you ask for a repost? I save to the web, with a quality of around 6 or 7 what ever photoshop defaults too for the web. Cheers, Mike

Mike. Here is a very important tip for you to consider: pretty much all serious photographers save the RAW files of all of their keepers? Why? With advances in software, breakthroughs in techniques, and improved image processing skills many images can be improved over a given period of time. Most major contests require RAW files.

I asked because my recollection is that, as you have done here, you crop too tightly and too square. Both of course are somewhat personal choices but I do speak from some experience. Lastly, the cost of stoarge today is super cheap. I do believe that you current course is not a wise one.... You are too good a photographer to be discarding your RAW files.

[Mike Veltri]

Mike. Here is a very important tip for you to consider: pretty much all serious photographers save the RAW files of all of their keepers? Why? With advances in software, breakthroughs in techniques, and improved image processing skills many images can be improved over a given period of time. Most major contests require RAW files.

I asked because my recollection is that, as you have done here, you crop too tightly and too square. Both of course are somewhat personal choices but I do speak from some experience. Lastly, the cost of stoarge today is super cheap. I do believe that you current course is not a wise one.... You are too good a photographer to be discarding your RAW files.

Thanks for your reply Arthur, I do keep my raw files in most cases and I agree that software has advanced. I have re-done images taken years ago and tweaked them to look better than edits done earlier. I am now looking into a new blu-ray writer as the newer discs can hold up to 25gb. I really need to clean up some tiff's from some dance photography I do that are taking up huge amounts of disc space at the moment. In some cases my psd files or tiffs can be larger than the original raw file, if you save them with layers or do some hdr work.

Thanks for the advice,
Mike

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. Though I am not an expert in the area of storage I am pretty sure that saving to multiple external hard drives and backing those up every five years or so is far cheaper than using discs.... At BAA we use a triple Drobo system with one set of disks off site.