Redtail Hawk

[Speed]

This was a grab shot. Two redtail hawks were circling over my house. I went inside and grabbed my D300 and got this one shot before they flew off.

First shot is full frame (just reduced for PR). The second is a crop of the hawk.

BTW, I LOVE my D300!

[Loupey]

What's all the blue stuff? Haven't seen that in a while.

Glad you're liking the D300. Hope to see more N&W stuff from it soon!

[Speed]

What's all the blue stuff? Haven't seen that in a while.

Glad you're liking the D300. Hope to see more N&W stuff from it soon!

The blue stuff...oh yeah, it's called sky. We get that around here. It's nice living in coastal NC. The ocean helps moderate our winters. Then again, there is a saying around here: "If you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes and it'll change." No, it's not that bad, but thunderstorms love coming up the coast and sweeping over us. Last night I watched the sky go from clear, to cloudy, to partly clear within a 15 or 20 minute timeframe.

I am planning on getting you more shots with the D300. I carry it with me everyday, and I'm learning more about it everyday as well. We've got birds and squirrels in the yard, so I'm hoping to get some nice shots of them in the coming weeks.

[A.M.D.A.]

A tad soft, but the hawk's markings are captured clearly enough to tell it is indeed a red-tailed... also if you are going to crop I think horizontal format would work better than vertical, since this allows room for the bird to "move into" the frame.

P.S. 200mm focal length (300mm equiv.) is pretty short to have the hawk show up that big! They must have been flying rather low.

[Speed]

A tad soft, but the hawk's markings are captured clearly enough to tell it is indeed a red-tailed... also if you are going to crop I think horizontal format would work better than vertical, since this allows room for the bird to "move into" the frame.

P.S. 200mm focal length (300mm equiv.) is pretty short to have the hawk show up that big! They must have been flying rather low.

No arguing that it's soft. And you're right about the crop as well.

They were flying fairly low. We've got a couple of redtails that hang our near our house. I have occassionally seen one on the fence posts of the neighbors horse pen, but I've yet to get a decent shot while it was perched there.