Changeable Hawk Eagle

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This is known as changeable hawk eagle or crested hawk eagle.

Shot in Corbett National Park, India.

Canon EOS 1D Mark II, Canon EF 400mm F2.8 L IS USM, EF 2xII, ISO 320, f9, 1/1000, full frame.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find and eye contact. I would put the bird further to the right in the frame and clone out the two branches sticking out of his back. The bird looks a bit dark on my monitor. Did you dial in positive EC?

[Arthur Morris]

Wonderful bird, and sharp. You needed to point the camera well to the left after attaining focus. The head is turned a bit away from you.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Perhaps flipping the camera as a vertical would have yielde a more pleasing composition. As is I find tit too tight top and bottom, and too vast left and right. I'd also look at eliminating the small twigs sticking out of the hawk's back (as Axel pointed out). Great looking bird, with quite the menacing eye!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Wonderful bird, and sharp. You needed to point the camera well to the left after attaining focus. The head is turned a bit away from you.

Hi Artie,
I would appreciate if you can please elaborate. Am a novice in bird photography. I am posting a vertical image here.
Hi Axel,
I missed dialling in +1/3 EV. And the angle was also steep. I was just climbing a hill and this Changeable Hawk Eagle was on top of a tree. The sky was also plain bland.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie, I would appreciate if you can please elaborate.

Hi Sabya. This applies to the ORIG post. When you are working in HORZ format and want to place the bird out of the center of the frame the easiest way to do it is to use One-Shot AF (S in Nikon), lock focus on the bird's eye, and then recompose. You need to hold the shutter button half-way down to avoid having the camera re-focus. Of course, if the bird moves its head, you need to start over.

Let me know if that makes any sense.