Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Yesterday afternoon with a break in our arctic freeze, I went to a local preserve once again looking for the Short-eared Owls. While waiting this juvenile took off from the tall grasses right in front of me and landed in a nearby tree. He or she took a few minutes scanning the ground below, so I took a few frames before takeoff. C&C welcome.

D500, Nikon 500mm + 1.4 TC, 1/2500s, f 6.3. ISO 4000, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley Gimbal head.

Removed a few distracting branches in cs6.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[arash_hazeghi]

you had a great handsome hawk (it's a Juvi) a nice perch, soft light plus nice BG. I like it a lot. I would crop tighter but the image already looks a bit soft and noisy most likely from ISO 4000 which is just too much for the camera you are using. In a situation like this and given this equipment I would have set myself for perched shots to have better results. That is to lower my ss to 1/500 sec (since you also had a tripod) and drop the ISO 800-1000 to get a cleaner shot. It seems like you had set yourself for flight ? but given this ISO with a crop body not much would have come out of it.

Best

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Geoffrey,
Nice pose from the hawk - well captured. I agree with Arash's advice above. Might also consider cloning out branches in ULC.
Allen

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Arash and Allen. Yes Arash I was set up for flight, and sure enough the takeoff right at me happened a few frames later. I had considered lowering the ss and ISO, but knew he was about to launch. Thank you both for suggestions.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu