Juvenile Red Tailed Hawk Portrait

[Loi Nguyen]

This has to be the most cooperative Red Tailed Hawk I have ever seen. I saw him on a fence post at eye level on a narrow 2-lane country road in Point Reyes National Seashore and slowly pulled the car up across from him. I had set up the bean bag and the lens ready to shoot the moment I stop the car, but to my amazement, he wouldn't move! I had time to swap in and out of converters and spent a good hour with him. Unfortunately, the sun was still hidden behind a thick cloud and fog in the early morning and my car battery ran out for having the light on with the engine off.

1DX
500F4 II + 2X III
1/320
F8
ISO-3200
Beanbag

The background is a distant hill side that began to turn green. I warmed up the image in DDP4 to try to recreate the Green in my memory.

Appreciate your comments.

Loi

[William Dickson]

Beautiful bird Loi. Perfectly sharp, the feather details are lovely. I wouldn't bother about my car battery running out if I could spend an hour with this cracker Must have been fantastic. I bet that hour whizzed past Good work . Well done .

[Binu John]

Beautiful portrait, Loi! Love the pose and the feather details. TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Loi, great intense stare, and excellent detail on the head - sharp too. Good DOF for this portrait.

[Richard Flack]

Lovely portrait Loi with super details. Great that you could get so close and have so much time with this bird!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Awesome details, comp and DOF Loi. Do you have any where the bill tip doesn't merge with the body?

[gail bisson]

Just beautiful Loi! Would think I had died and gone to heaven if I met a cooperative hawk like this.
Love the comp and head turn. IQ with the 2X is excellent.
I didn't notice the beak merge until Sid mentioned it. Now that I do see it I agree that t would be nice to have one without the merge.
Gail

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the feather detail, look back pose, IQ and composition. Very well done Loi!

[David Salem]

Hey Loi, nice that you got so close to this hawk. Looks like a male and a juvie at that. Nice details and exposure and I always like a look back pose. Well done.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The young ones tens to be less shy than their adult counterparts...we had a celebrity young RTH a couple years ago that let people approach similarly...on foot! Super portrait Loi, and the dead battery, although certainly a bummer at the time, now only adds to a nice story

[Ed Kelly]

Lovely image. I would remove the small hair on the lip. Didn't notice the beak position until mentioned.

Ed

[Satish Ranadive]

Magnificent portrait. Love the stare of cute one. Great composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone for your comments. Unfortunately, I don't have any image with the beak not touching the feather, I didn't notice it myself actually.

David, how do you tell it is a juvenile male?