EVENING RED TAIL
D3s, Nikkor 600mm, 1.4TC, f5.6, 1/1250, iso 400, tripod, clear evening. Although the light angle is not ideal, I like the golds, browns and eye contact, Lightened up the shaded areas with the dodge tool. The end of the branch bordering the right side of the image was cut off. My eye tended to follow the branch away from the hawk. C & C appreciated.
Gary
Hi Gary, nice capture of the juvi red-tailed hawk! I love the striking contrast of the plumage on these birds at this early age. Excellent pose, composition, color rendition, and eye contact. Nice job of pruning the perch, looks good! The only issue I see with this image is the mixed light, as much of the bird is in shadow with just a bit of sun on the wing and head. Not much you could do beyond what you did, but that's a lot of image area to lighten. Fill flash with a beamer would have helped significantly given the low light of evening.
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
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Gary,
I agree with your self critique, light angle is a bit off. Better angle makes it much stronger, still a nice, nice capture. Solid tripod technique shooting that much focal length (FL) you preserved nice detail. I assume the FL also helped flattened the high shooting angle. Thanks for sharing the moment with nature, keep them coming.
Good comments already, I would consider cropping some off the left to get the bird out of center more.
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