Adult Coopers Hawk - a late Fall treat

[Terry Olmsted]

This guy showed up in late afternoon in the pines near our feeders looking for snacks. Sky conditions were very dark and light was marginal for even ISO 1600. Hand held but bracing against a wall. I used a blur tool for the background to reduce the noise without losing detail in the bird.
Taken 11/08/2008 Woodway, Washington
Canon XTi 400mm f5.6L 1/125s f5.6 ISO 1600 Partial Metering

[Joe Senzatimore]

Great job considering the conditions.
Wonderful detail in the bird.

[Dan Brown]

Hi Terry. Very nice opportunity. I really like the eye contact/head turn! I can see much noise in the whole image due to the high iso. In my repost, I used Noise Ninja on the BG only at a fairly high setting to reduce that noise, but that still left the noise in the bird but I don't think we can reduce this noise without loosing the feather detail. Nice work.

[Terry Olmsted]

That worked nicely, Dan. Thanks. I'll have to download that program - my perennial problem is background noise.

[Ed Vatza]

Nice capture. I love the pose and the background looks really nice albeit noisy but that had been addressed. Oh, and I think the eyes have it! :D

[Todd Frost]

Good looking bird Terry. To bad about the low light and noise. Unfortunately that is normal light for us up here in the pnw. Hope you are able to get the new body as that will help. Very nice job with exposure and wonderful pose. Hope to run into you this winter.

Todd

[Terry Olmsted]

Likewise, Todd. Perhaps on Fir Island/Skagit North Fork for short-eared owls in late January after hunting season.....
Terry