Hawk Hunting

[mjs1973]

Found this guy on my way home from eagle hunting. Thoughts/comments?

[ShotsbyScott]

Looks like you had a very successful trip. I really like this shot!
Boy, I need a more powerful lens.

Scott

[jar_e]

Michael,

Great colors in this shot. I love the vertical shot of this, and how it's nice and zoomed in. A tad blurry on my monitory/computer, but it may have just been the compression when you resized it! Overall, great picture and beautiful timing.

Jared

[JK_Photo]

It is a nice shot with great saturation but it looks soft to me too. i think you caught the focus on that front branch. It looks sharp.
That's hunting eagles with a camera, yes?

[Eagle_Eye]

Man oh man, I like the shot Michael. Just a little out of focus for me too, but you just don't get a chance like this every day. Did you get any other shots of this guy?

Dudley

[Aaron]

I don't mind the soft focus on this one Michael,it adds a bit of mood to the shot. Great picure.

[LeeIs]

Great shot.

How far away from him were you?

[mjs1973]

Thanks for all the comments everyone, they are greatly appriciated!

To answer some of your questions: yes, all of my hunting is done with the camera, gave up the other method a few years ago.

I was able to take several shots of this guy before he got bored with me and flew away. I picked this one to post because I liked the curve of his neck. I will sort threw them again to see if I can come up with something a little sharper.

I'm guessing I was about 50-75 yards away from this guy, maybe a little more. This shot has been cropped quite a bit to make it look much closer than it actually was.

This was shot from my truck sitting along the side of the road, resting my lens on the window. I used my sigma 170-500mm with a 2x TC. Not sure what the settings were, other than ISO 800.

[Aaron]

Michael, I found a really neat gadget that might help - I'm sure others have already found them as well, but they make a "spotting scope" mount for a car window. This thing just slips over the window glass and is used to mount binoculars, spotting scopes, etc -- anything with a STANDARD TRIPOD MOUNT so it works for cameras and lenses quite well. I've used it very successfully, just kill the engine, roll down the window and used the car for the tripod. Might help? Your milage may vary. ;)

[mjs1973]

Michael, I found a really neat gadget that might help - I'm sure others have already found them as well, but they make a "spotting scope" mount for a car window. This thing just slips over the window glass and is used to mount binoculars, spotting scopes, etc -- anything with a STANDARD TRIPOD MOUNT so it works for cameras and lenses quite well. I've used it very successfully, just kill the engine, roll down the window and used the car for the tripod. Might help? Your milage may vary. ;)

Aaron, I have seen these as well, and have really thought pretty hard about getting one. I found one in a camera store and it seemed very expensive for what it actually was so I didn't get it, but they sure would come in handy. Thanks for mentioning it!

[paulnj]

Get a 5 pound bag of rice and rest your lens/camera on that. A window mount(bogen clamp style) is pretty much useless in wind(obviously turn off your vehicle ) with a setup of 20X(plus your digital mag) at that distance.

[mdmc]

I like this shot a lot, I had to search for a while to find it. The bird has a comicaly pissed off, plotting revenge look to him.(probably a female, lol.).
Makes a good stock photo.
Mark.

[Flyback]

Fifty to seventy five yards away???...Your eyesight must be as keen as the hawks!!! I would have never spoted him. Nice shot Michael!...Don

[Lava Lamp]

Found this guy on my way home from eagle hunting. Thoughts/comments?

You do a good job of finding your raptors -- I often photograph birds, but seldom see a hawk or eagle. If I do, they are usually so far away, I can't get much of a shot. We get Ospreys around here, though.

As for your shot, I'd be happy finding the hawk and getting a shot as good as you have. To get it to "National Geographic" quality, it needs a little work. I don't know how you metered for the back light, but the darks and shadows in your post are overexposed (which is a good thing - youcan always adjust in PS). If you lighten them a little, the yellow in the beak and the red in the feathers comes out more. Here's my quick take with the above, plus a little sharpening. It wouldn't be your final image, but may illustrate what I mean.

It's also a bit soft and the branches in front seem to be more focused -- could the AF have locked on those? I find a tripod cumbersome, but sometimes a bird will rest long enough for you to use one and it seems to help. I try and crank the ISO up to get a faster shutter speed, too and try to elimate the noise later in Neat Image.

[dadas115]

These guys are really tough to get when they are sitting up in trees like that. It looks like you had tough lighting but still managed to get a decent picture. It would have been nice if the hawk would have cooperated a little better and turned his head just a bit so its eye would catch a little of the ambient light. A lot of people use flashes for this but personally I don’t like doing it. If this were my picture I might consider removing that twig in front of the hawk’s head. I also wish that branch wasn’t in front of the hawk but there isn’t a lot that can be done about that (I don’t know how many hawk pictures I have thrown out because of twigs and branches but it is a large number). I really love these birds and always like seeing pictures of them.

Nice work,

Greg