first spring redtailed hawk

[paulnj]

Nothing is harder than sneaking up on a perched hawk, but sometimes we all get lucky ;)

This young redtailed hawk was SO BACKLIT, I needed plus 1.3 ev to nearly expose it correctly. I set the white point in PS and did very little else besides USM and a crop to vertical(8x10 format)

1D/100-400IS W/ 1.4TCII on LEXAR ;)

BTW... I never liked borders, so I never learned how to put one on

[natatbeach]

Nothing is harder than sneaking up on a perched hawk, but sometimes we all get lucky ;)

This young redtailed hawk was SO BACKLIT, I needed plus 1.3 ev to nearly expose it correctly. I set the white point in PS and did very little else besides USM and a crop to vertical(8x10 format)

1D/100-400IS W/ 1.4TCII on LEXAR ;)

BTW... I never liked borders, so I never learned how to put one on

no matter what I say that will be encouraging will keep you from telling me what you could have done differently...so I'll just say I like the monochromatic look of it and call it a day......smooches....glad to see you posting again ;)

[almo]

Nothing is harder than sneaking up on a perched hawk, but sometimes we all get lucky ;)

This young redtailed hawk was SO BACKLIT, I needed plus 1.3 ev to nearly expose it correctly. I set the white point in PS and did very little else besides USM and a crop to vertical(8x10 format)

1D/100-400IS W/ 1.4TCII on LEXAR ;)

BTW... I never liked borders, so I never learned how to put one on

DUDE! i was just about to ask why I never see pics from you. You better plan on making this a habit!

Awesome image. The BG is way out there, but Its so uniform that it just doesn't really matter to me. Love the bird!

[Old Timer]

It's about time you treated us to another of your signature images. Nice job working under a difficult lighting situation. I'm giving some very serious thought to the purchase of 1.4TC to couple with the 80-200 f2.8. What are the pros and cons as far as you are concerned?

[Lava Lamp]

Nothing is harder than sneaking up on a perched hawk, but sometimes we all get lucky ;)

This young redtailed hawk was SO BACKLIT, I needed plus 1.3 ev to nearly expose it correctly. I set the white point in PS and did very little else besides USM and a crop to vertical(8x10 format)

1D/100-400IS W/ 1.4TCII on LEXAR ;)

BTW... I never liked borders, so I never learned how to put one on

Nice to see your work again. How does one sneak up on a hawk? Do you have some sort of magic ju ju?

[paulnj]

STEALTH , know how and in this case.... youthful bird with hunger kept it from flying away(until the wood ducks got scared)

[paulnj]

It's about time you treated us to another of your signature images. Nice job working under a difficult lighting situation. I'm giving some very serious thought to the purchase of 1.4TC to couple with the 80-200 f2.8. What are the pros and cons as far as you are concerned?

A NIKKOR 1.4 will slightly degrade the image from the 80-200 and the AF will be slightly slower. IMHO a 300f4afs will be sharper, but a 80-200 w/ 1.4 will still produce great images worthy of printing large. I printed a 11x17 from a slide shot with my 80-200AF-D and a 1.4tc(kenko) , I was pleased

[Speed]

Nothing is harder than sneaking up on a perched hawk, but sometimes we all get lucky ;)

This young redtailed hawk was SO BACKLIT, I needed plus 1.3 ev to nearly expose it correctly. I set the white point in PS and did very little else besides USM and a crop to vertical(8x10 format)

1D/100-400IS W/ 1.4TCII on LEXAR ;)

BTW... I never liked borders, so I never learned how to put one on

Got to love exposure compensation. Works great on backlit subjects, but your BG (especially sky) gets washed out. Was the sky blue to begin with, or was it already washed out?

Love the colors and details. Awesome shot my friend. And you don't just walk up to a hawk. They are skittish birds. Great job, as usual...

[Asylum Steve]

Paul, I don't mean to ruffle your feathers (hey, that's funny! birds? ruffle your feathers? get it?), but I'd bet the farm that what we have here is actually a South Sub-Arctic Overstuffed Tie-Dye Filabuster Cattle Wren.

In your defense, the Cattle Wren has tremendous cameleon-like properties, and under the right circumstances (mainly atmospheric conditions and lighting), can look frighteningly like the hawk you describe.

Word has it that they delight in fooling amateur photographers to no end...

Anyway dude, it was an honest mistake. Just stick with me, and I'll keep you on the right track. Hey, you might even learn somethin'...

[paulnj]

So Steve,

Since you are the MYTHOLOGICAL bird expert.... Give me a FITTING latin name of said Cattle wren to complete the story ;)

I know you just wanted to give me props on a hi-key wildlife image taken IN CAMERA ;)

[paulnj]

Got to love exposure compensation. Works great on backlit subjects, but your BG (especially sky) gets washed out. Was the sky blue to begin with, or was it already washed out?

Love the colors and details. Awesome shot my friend. And you don't just walk up to a hawk. They are skittish birds. Great job, as usual...

Rob,

the sky was grey in color , though the sun was quite bright. By over exposing the scene(evalutive/ matrix) by that much I came up with a File that had a COMPLETELY BLOWN sky , but my AUTO WB gave me a bluish/green cast to the WHOLE scene. I usually use 5500 K as my white balance though

[paulnj]

1D/100-400IS W/ 1.4TCII on LEXAR ;)

A few more quick edits ;) These were at +1ev and were too dark

[paulnj]

1D/100-400IS W/ 1.4TCII on LEXAR ;)

[paulnj]

taken first week of April. DON'T make me upload 100 images ;)

[Asylum Steve]

...you're one of those pseudo-scholars hung up on traditional archaic latin verbiage.

If memory serves me (I did study latin as well as watched birds a few semesters at Our Lady of the Swollen Knuckles Catholic school as a youngster in Crack Rock, NY - which, btw, considering I'm Methodist was quite a trip...), the proper scientific name is:

wrenchothorus cameliadelphia dayglodytes

And yes, I believe this is the only existing bird to have a scientific name in THREE parts...

IN CAMERA? I don't think I've ever heard the term. Oh, is that fiddling around with the camera and doing all that dumb stuff we do BEFORE we open an image in photoshop???

[adina]

Looks like cut and paste to me!

Nice shots Paul, good to see you posting again.

adina

[Speed]

1D/100-400IS W/ 1.4TCII on LEXAR ;)

Yeah, I was going to say something about that, but I won't since you already mentioned it. ;-)

Dude, I love this shot of the hawk leaving his perch!!! Great catch!

[Mike T]

Nice shots Paul, I thought you'd be down south hunting that rare woodpecker by now. These shots would be easy to add to a different background with photoshop.I know some will say it's cheating, but just go out and get a nice sky shot and put it behind your hawk.
Mike

[paulnj]

Hunting the ivory billed would take months of canoeing ;) Also I don't think 1more guy frightening it would be right for the sake of the species. But I do hunt RARE birds of NJ every chance I get that I'm not too tired (like in 15 minutes)

As for changing the BG.... NO WAY!!!!! I dig the hi key look and HATE photo artistry ;) If it can't be taken in my camera with a few suttle changes... why bother is MY theory

I don't clone branches, change BG's or gaussian blur (well very rarely), but surely can if I chose to.

[villenadecorte]

Paul,
Awesome shots... I'm glad to see you posting more pics!