RSH and Cat Tail

[Jose Suro]

Hi All,

Shot this last week while on a "fence-posting" shoot with my friend Ron. This guy was so cooperative we got tired of shooting it and left! We got so close I racked back to 250mm for this shot. Waited until some cirrus partly blocked the Sun for this image and that gave me even light and no shadows.

Thanks for looking.

Best,

Jose

D300 - 200~400VR - 1/500s @ F7.1 - ISO 400 - handheld from car - manual exposure

[Jim Poor]

Very nice. I like the BG colors and the fact that it shows some environment without being distracting. There area a couple bright spots back there that I would tone down a little, but this one is sweet with a lot of detail in the subject.

[Alfred Forns]

Jose you did come up with a winning bird !!!! I really like it and the only suggestion I can give is to soften the bg a bit With slight blurring will still look natural but allow the bird to stand out even more !!!

[Grady Weed]

On this shot I think you could have gone down to 2.8 if you had it. That would have given you the background everyone wants. Still a nice image.

[Lana Hays]

Jose
What a gorgeous hawk....and one that I'd like to meet. Detail is excellent. The talon on the cat tail is a really nice touch. I'd rather have nice DOF and then blur the BG rather than have a blurred BG and wonder how I'm going to get details out of a shallow DOF image. Well done!!!

[Anita Rakestraw]

I should be so lucky to find such a cooperative hawk! He is just gorgeous, the light & details & focus are wonderful. I do agree with Alfred, though, that a more OOF background would improve it.