This image goes back into my archives about as far back as they go. It was taken on October 1, 2007 – just a few months after I became serious about my photography. I was still shooting with my first digital camera, the Canon Rebel XTi which I still have. It’s an entry-level camera and I still remember what the camera salesman said when I told him that I was planning on mounting that small camera onto a huge Canon 500 mm lens – “well, it will work but don’t you think it’ll look a little silly?”
Even at that early point in my “career” I knew that a photographer’s financial resources are better invested in great glass that holds its value than in cameras that quickly become obsolete. It’s been years since I used the XTi but that lens was a great one until I sold it for its new upgrade a few months ago and when I sold it (well-used of course) I got as much as I paid for it almost 7 years earlier.
The XTi just gathers dust…
1/1250, f/9. ISO 400, Canon Rebel XTi, EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4 tc. not baited, set up or called in
This shot isn’t great technically but given my primitive skills at the time I was pleased with the results. What I like best about it is that the hawk is landing rather than taking off. Compared to landing shots, take-off shots are relatively easy because you generally don’t know where they’re going to land. But this bird regularly hunted from this perch and returned to it so I prefocused on the branch and let it rip with the burst rate of the XTi that makes flowing molasses seem like a speed demon.
Luckily one of those few shots caught the hawk as it was reaching for the branch.
Ron
Note: I’m off on another jaunt to Montana – duration unknown. I’ve scheduled posts in my absence but I’ll be without access to a computer so I won’t be responding to any comments, though I do receive your comments on my phone when I have a signal and I always enjoy them.
Wish me luck with the smoke from the fires in Washington, Oregon and Idaho – the prevailing wind direction is not helpful…
What an incredibly beautiful, graceful shot! I can almost feel downward sweeping the power of those wings and the gentleness of his landing…that was a big bird and the branch had to be very strong and flexible to hold a hawk that size.
I just can’t help but wonder what this hawk is thinking. That branch can’t possibly support him or her. 😀
I think this is a fabulous shot. I love the detail of the legs and the feet ready to grasp the branch. I don’t know anything about the technical aspects of photography, but I do know what I like, and I like this.
Britches, beauty and history. WHAT a post.
Have fun. And come back to us with more magic.
OOOOOO!!!!!
It isn’t the equipment; it’s what the person DOES with the equipment – and a fast finger!!
Beautiful!
Amazing shot Ron! What great talent you have!
Charlotte
I like the photo and the “flowing molasses seem like a speed demon” description of the frame rate of the Rebel. Hope you have good visibility and lots of interesting subjects in Montana.
Dave
Wow! If that camera salesman had had any idea of what you’d accomplish these past 8 years… That’s a magnificent image, Ron. Thanks for sharing it with us. Sending you wishes for good photography conditions and fresh winds on your current jaunt, not smoke.