Ferruginous Hawk

[Ian Cassell]

Bosque del Apache NWR

Canon 7D
Canon 500/4

1/2000 sec f/6.3 ISO 500 HH

CS6
Noiseware Pro

[Stuart Laughton]

Wow. Ferruginous Hawk photos are few and far between, but this one's a beauty. For me, the bird is absolutely perfectly positioned in the frame, and the pose and intent gaze are very
suspenseful. What will it do in the next few seconds?

[Joaquin Barbará]

Awsome capture. For my own education would you mind posting the original capture?

[Ian Cassell]

Thank you. Joaquin, here is the original.

[Sandy Witvoet]

I LOVE this bird! What do you think about a horizontal? The square isn't quite working for me... he is hunting "big time" (or so it seems). Wing and tail blur are ok by me.... looks like pretty good focus on the eye/head/chest! Cool BIF!

[Diane Miller]

Beautifully sharp and detailed, and even more impressive for that much crop. And great light for looking up at the bird. Did you use fill flash? I doubt it would do much at that distance, even with a BB.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, folks. I'll play with the crop a bit, Sandy, and see what that does for me. No flash, Diane. I just got lucky with the light. The wind was strong and he was hovering for enough time for me to get a few images before he blasted. I had just taken off my 1.4x and pulled my camera off the tripod to move on when I looked up and saw him. 1.4x might have had mixed results as, even though the crop wouldn't have been as severe, I'm not sure that handholding at 700mm would have worked for me.