Harris's Hawk

[Bill Dix]

From Martin Ranch, south Texas, last week.

D500, Sigma 150-600 @ 220 mm, ISO 1250, 1/2500s @ f/7.1 manual.

[Jay Shah]

Wow..During my visit to Martin Ranch, HH paid a brief visit and that to late morning by which time light was too contrasty.

[Jack Backs]

Wonderful image. Great lighting, love the contrast of the bird to the background.
Jack

[Isaac Grant]

This one rocks! Great light and pose. I think this is by far the best shot you've posted with the Sigma.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Great capture, Bill. Beautiful morning light and fine detail.

Geoffrey




https://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[Glenn Pure]

Fabulous work Bill. Excellent light direction and illumination on the underwing to show off all that colour and detail. Tones look pretty good too but wonder if some of that white on the tail could be pulled back a touch? But a small point on what is an excellent frame. Looks like the bird might have just taken off from the bush/tree on the right of the frame as I'm guessing that's why that foliage is only slightly out of focus. Thanks for sharing.

[Alex Becker]

Really nice Bill. Nice details and a great pose. This guy must've been really close at 220mm! The foliage does look a bit too blurred to my eyes but as Glenn said maybe just DOF. TFS

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for your comments. The tree is indeed OOF, because of DOF. But it did look a bit funky to me; maybe I did something in post. In this repost it has a little more definition.

[Bill Dix]

Of course, I could take the tree out altogether.

[Ian McLachlan]

Like everything about the image and the tree.To me the first was the best as the tree on my screen is lighter in colour and makes the bird a greater contrast .Powerful .

[Raybel Robles]

I actually like the last one without the tree altogehter. My first impression on the first one, I felt there was something odd about it, like a gaussian blur of some type. The bird is perfect since the first post!

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. I know it's impossible to please everyone, and I know not everyone likes blurs, but here's one more version. This pushes the tree into the middle distance to give some depth to the image without distracting too much from the bird.

[David Salem]

I prefer the one without the tree also. Actually great job removing the tree. Nice colors and pose.
I only wish for a little bit of a head turn towards the camera but I would take this in a heart beat. Well done Bill