Great look of concentration on the hawk, good to have a relatively clean shot of him in the grasses, including seeing the feet, not easy in this type of setting.
The image seems a bit bright for me, and I would consider toning down the luminosity a bit. You could use this selectively to help separate the hawk from the bright background.
If possible, a larger aperture to decrease DOF might have improved his isolation from the BG as well.
Be sure to include the camera and lens details ( what is the max. aperture, 2.8, etc.) so we can tell what your options would have been re: different settings to further tweak the image.
This is a great natural history shot. Good low angle. I would also like to know what he is eating.Randy has a great suggestion re: decreasing brightness in BG,
Gail
Hi Dan, I like the light quality on the Hawk, and good DOF where it counts. The low perspective works well, and another vote for toning down the bright parts.
Thanks all, I arrived when the hawk was already eating, so didn't get a great look at the prey as it was turned mostly from me.
It was about noon and I was leaving the refuge because of the harsh light when I stumbled on it.
I am pretty sure it is a baby Nutria, though, this cropped up photo shows the foot.
Sorry, this one is more graphic, hope you don't mind.
DSC_7373nx.jpg
I got to the scene earlier than you did when the prey was still alive. It was a young nutria. You did a great job of capturing the big piece of fur/meat in full view as he did not lift it up for more than a few seconds at a time.