Hawk ID give-away

[Andrew Harrell]

I have a pair of hawks that frequent my neighborhood. I got a chance last week to shoot some pics of him (her?) early in the morning. At first he was perched on a street-light near the house. Took some pics, then he flew over and landed on the corner of the house. Took some more pics, and then he jumped down into my yard landing on something.

I caught this interesting pose. If you couldn't see the tail, this view should clue you in on the specie -- it's a red-shouldered hawk, as opposed to it's look-alike, a red-tailed hawk.




He then began to eat what he had captured ..... I zoomed in on the head and captured this pic ....






I'm only asking for C&C on the first photo ..... Sony A77, 300mm, F7.1 @ 1/1000, ISO 200.

My own self-critique: Would have been ideal to get lower down ... but then I don't know if I would have had as nice of a shot of the shoulder. I wish the head was turned just a bit more so the beak is exposed away from the body. I took the photo into LR and worked on Exposure, Contrast and Shadows (upping them all just a bit). Anything else to tweak in post-production?

Is the crop OK for this particular pose of the bird? All I did was crop a little on right side to open up the left side and extended wing.

Thanks as always for your comments.


AP

[Diane Miller]

A very nice catch! I think the crop is good but I would have left a little more on the right side, so the shadow isn't crowded. It balances the wing nicely. The colors and tonalities also look good.

If you consistently need to increase exposure, I'd try to overexpose a little more. Increasing it will bring up noise, lowering it will minimize it.

It always gives a more compelling image to get down to eye level with a subject, but you may not have had the time here. Hope you get more chances with this very attractive bird.

[Warren Spreng]

Handsome specimen! I have a Cooper's that frequents my back yard (and feeder!) and I'm always torn when he is on the ground since it hides his talons, but I really like the pose on this one. I see what Diane means about the shadow being crowded since it is almost like the other wing. Nice catch!

[Glennie Passier]

Very nice bird. As you have noted yourself, a lower POV may have been good, but these things happen so quickly, you were lucky to get any shots off.

Let's hope he comes back for you!