A good opportunity to practice

[Randy Stout]

I am posting this picture to alert folks to the neat opportunities to practice your bird photography on something other than mallards and gulls! This red tailed hawk was imaged this afternoon at the local bird sanctuary. There was an introductory presentation of a RTH and great horned owl, and then they took them outside for pictures. By being polite I was able to get the bird moved a bit to give it a better background without people or signs behind it.

I know these type of events are widely held, so if you want some fun, and a good opportunity to practice on a beautiful bird, keep your ears open.

D4 70-200 f/4 1/1600 ISO 500 handheld

The bird could stand more DOF, but I wanted a smooth background and traded one for the other.

Cheers

Randy

[Diane Miller]

Good thing to bring up, Randy! I love the detail and sharpness here.

I've shot at a couple of these events and they are a great way to get wonderful portraits. You can often coach the handlers to position the birds with a good BG and good light. You'll want a focal length of around 200mm, maybe a little less with a small sensor, and more can be nice if you have a full-frame sensor.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Great shot and so true. I have many images from events.

The festival of the cranes here in NM every year has multiple sanctuaries bring birds and they pretty much cater to the photographers. Literally they have donation cups for photos and they seem to pretty much know how and where to get a good BG.

I just feel sorry for the birds.

They had a harris hawk out at one time with at least a dozen pros surrounded with the huge cameras all around, astonishing.

I'm probably strange though, I find the behavior of humans far more unusual than birds, and I think the birds think the same thing.

Oh I should add that falconry shows are another good place to practice in flight photography.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Excellent, Randy! We have an excellent Raptor Rehabber here... they periodically have "release events" for the public (which are best for BIFs, since the birds are WAY ready to go back to the wild life!) There are also fund raisers with their "ambassador" birds, which can provide some nice close-up opportunities.

[ArthurSteinberger]

Glad to see you could get an image that crisp with handheld because I'm allergic to tripods. Beautiful detail.

[Svante Larsson]

Just lovely