Rough-legged Hawk Landing

[Raymond Lee]

Hi everyone,

The Rough-legged Hawks are moving through our area this fall migration. Here's one of the captures:



On a rural road south of Beaverhill Lake, Beaver County, Alberta, Canada on October 22, 2011.
Canon EOS 7D | EF 400mm f/5.6L | Manual mode, 1/1600 sec., f/7.1, ISO 640 @ 400mm

Thanks for all C&C. Have a great weekend.

Raymond

[Doug Brown]

I like your eye contact, exposure, and landing pose. I'd consider sharpening a little more. It would have been nice to have no overlap between bird and tree, and a better far wing position.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice timing here, and I like the colours. Great view of the near wing. I would prefer more room above, and the hawk seems a little bit smooth as if NR was applied to it (not saying you did, just that it has that feel). Hope to see some of these guys this winter!

[Arthur Morris]

Great timing. A beautiful pose. Soft light. Talons outstretched. Nice job with the exposure. Was the bird attracted to your position???

[Raymond Lee]

I like your eye contact, exposure, and landing pose. I'd consider sharpening a little more. It would have been nice to have no overlap between bird and tree, and a better far wing position.

Thanks! I thought the sharpness wasn't too bad, but I agree the head could add a little sharpening.

Nice timing here, and I like the colours. Great view of the near wing. I would prefer more room above, and the hawk seems a little bit smooth as if NR was applied to it (not saying you did, just that it has that feel). Hope to see some of these guys this winter!

Thanks! Yeah, I ran a bit of NR. It felt a bit noisy to me after some curve adjustments even though the exposure was decent straight from the camera. I toned that down a bit and re-crop the photo to give a bit more room above. Hopefully this one is better:

Great timing. A beautiful pose. Soft light. Talons outstretched. Nice job with the exposure. Was the bird attracted to your position???

Thanks Artie! The bird was not attracted to my attention. I accidently spooked it while driving on the road, but I saw it flew back to the same area right away, so I stopped my car and photographed it landing on this tree. Of course I wished the tree was not in the way and the wing position could be better, but it is what it is.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Artie! The bird was not attracted to my attention. I accidently spooked it while driving on the road, but I saw it flew back to the same area right away, so I stopped my car and photographed it landing on this tree. Of course I wished the tree was not in the way and the wing position could be better, but it is what it is.

Good thinking. Heck, I wish it were mine!