Ugly perches have been the bain of my photographic existence lately. When a bird lets me get unusually close it always seems to be on a metal post, sign, hunk of concrete , telephone pole or even a sailboat mast. For that reason I’ve been attempting a lot of take-off shots recently.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4
Case in point: a few weeks ago this hawk let me get ridiculously close but it was perched on a particularly unattractive metal sign. The light angle was good so I removed my teleconverter and waited to see if it would take-off, fully expecting it to launch away from me as they usually do. What a pleasant surprise when it took off parallel to me and gave me good eye contact at the same time.
I particularly like the good detail, the blood on the feet from its last meal and the nice look at those namesake “rough legs”.
Ron
A tad late on remarking on this image. Fantastic DOF, excellent feather detail, and wonderful light on the whole bird.
Definitely a Wall Hanger!!
Oh wow. Beautiful and deadly.
absolutely gorgeous, deadly and vibrant… so true to the raptor mystique.
Sick! Those feet!