Red-tailed Hawk in Flight- HNY 2009!

[Raymond Barlow]

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

D300 / 200-400 vr
1/2000s f/5.6 at 400.0mm iso250

Handheld, natural light, 70% of ff

best wishes to you and your families for 2009.

[Doug Brown]

Love this image Ray! From the awesome job with exposure, sharpness, and wing position to the inclusion of habitat. Eye contact is good. I might remove the long strands of grass in front of the bird.

[Bogdan Coltea]

I love the wing & head position.
Agree about the OOF grasses on the left.

[Ed Prete]

I think there is a great balance between subject and environment. Great exposure, wing position, you name it. While that grass could detract, I think its not a big deal and perhaps would alternatively suggest duping that section, placing it on it's own layer and blurring it slightly so it's a little more OOF. Great image overall though. Nice start to a new year.

[Dan Streiffert]

Great capture. This nicely combines the bird with its environment.

[Stephen Stephen]

Lovely sharp image Ray. I really like the wing position and angle of image. I wish that this one was in my collection.

Happy New Year.

[Juan Aragonés]

Happy new year Ray and best whishes for you and your family :-)
I like the composition a lot and the sharpness is superb with a very neat eye contact and great light. Well done!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice job Ray. Great comp, and love the wing position. The included habitat is superb...I even like those tall grasses mentioned by a few :-)

[Tony House]

Very nice, love the wing form and nice catchlight in the eye. Maybe clone out the long grass? but to be honest it didn't really distract me from the bird when I first viewed the image.....

Nice work.
Tony

[bill kominsky]

Agree with all the above, great job on this very elegant bird.

Bill

[Caroline Darmo]

Awesome image! Great sharpness, wing position, eye contact... The background really complements the bird.