Red-tailed hawk

[Peter Farrell]

Taken yesterday along the James River in Williamsburg, VA.
Sony A700, Sony 70-400G @400mm, f5.6, 1/500, iso200, AWB, Monopod, about 120' from subject, 50% of FF
PP in Elements 5: slight color curve adjustment, reduced shadows on face, slight color saturattion and sharpening



Appreciate all comments
Happy New Year
Peter

[Stu Bowie]

Great sighting Peter, and you have captured a good angle. This guy looks pretty well fed too.

[Allen Sparks]

Good catch Peter. Love the perch, pose and eye contact. My only nit is that I think the sharpness/detail in the head suffers slightly due to the large crop. still a very nice image.

[kenn threed]

An excellent capture for such distance Peter, and a really magnificent bird. I love this shot.

Exposure seems a bit hot to me tho... and PS Levels reports clipping in all channels (most in the Blue channel).
So I hope you won't mind, I made small levels adjustments and did some selective sharpening in an attempt to recover a bit more detail:

What do you think?

Hope this is helpful,

Kenn

[Peter Farrell]

Thanks everyone for the comments.
Kenn, thanks for the re-post. I prefer your sky but my bird. I will try to duolicate your sky.
Thanks & HNY
Peter