I’ve photographed a lot of Red-tailed Hawks recently and the streak continued yesterday morning near the north end of Utah’s Promontory Mountains.
1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
I love photographing raptors in craggy settings so I had to stop for this handsome bird as it perched on some lichen-covered rocks near Golden Spike National Historic Site. It was just a little too far away for high quality photos of it perched but if it took off I knew its extended wings would help to fill the frame.
1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
When the bird crouched to launch it was facing the perfect direction for a side view of some dynamic take-off postures but the hawk was partially side-lit from my right so I knew I’d have to get lucky. If my shutter clicked when the wings were extended to the sides they would almost certainly shade its face. You just have to fire off a burst at takeoff and hope the gods of photography are with you.
The last four images in this post are sequential shots in the burst without a skip.
1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
As the bird exploded into the air I captured this push-off pose that always impresses me with the athleticism required for launch.
1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
In the next frame I caught the arched back with the wings down after the first down-stroke.
1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
In this last shot we can see how close the shadow from the left wing is to putting the face in shade. If the wing had been a little higher I’d likely have deleted the image. After this shot I started to lose sharp focus on the hawk, probably because of the proximity of the textured background.
For my money backgrounds can make or break an image. The lack of contrast in homogenous blue skies makes it much easier to maintain focus on a bird in flight but I sure find backgrounds like this to be more interesting and visually appealing.
That’s one of many reasons I’m glad I live near mountains and often photograph birds with them as my backdrop.
Ron
I love the line on the wing feathers in the last photo. They appear to flow like a silk veil.
Totally spectacular and awesome Ron…such beauty. Tight pics too…tack sharp on my screen.
Thanks very much, Zaphir. The last image is the least sharp of the bunch in the RAW file so I did have to crank up the sharpening slightly on that one during processing.
Absolutely sensational series R9!!
Charlotte
Thanks, Charlotte.
What’s not to love.
Beauty, britches and athleticism.
Well said, EC. Figured you’d enjoy the britches!
Great pictures . Wonderful demonstration of light direction and wing position effects on head light. Also a good measure of wing flap speed if these shots are about one -tenth of a second apart.Thanks, John
“Also a good measure of wing flap speed if these shots are about one -tenth of a second apart”
Ha, you pay attention to the same minutia I do, John. We’re birds of a feather!
Once again, the phrase, “little brother to the eagle” (Golden)comes to mind…especially with the last two images….I don’t know how much higher quality you’d want…
You’re absolutely right Patty. They ARE small eagles. I’ve lived with one for 23 years and she is a an eagle.
I doubt they consider themselves small eagles either. Mighty eagles…
Patty, speaking of goldens, on this same morning I had chances with three Golden Eagles flying together. Something always went wrong though and I only got one shot of a single bird that I like fairly well.
You say they aren’t high quality but I disagree because you nailed the eye. 🙂
Judy, the way I worded that was probably misleading. I think all of these images are relatively high quality. I just wasn’t close enough to crop tightly on the bird while it was perched (and relatively small before opening its wings) to get great quality. So that first image is cropped pretty loosely.
Ron, how far might this redtail be from you? Do I recall that you shoot in Aperture Priority?
jake
Jake, if I had to guess I’d say the bird was about 150-175 feet away from me. Yes, I always shoot in aperture priority.
Beautiful series. I’m with you about mountains. They definitely make a more interesting background, and it’s just nice to have them close by. I never get tired of looking at our mountains (the Franklins, the southernmost part of the Rockies), because even though their outline remains the same, the look is different every day.
Yup, mountains remain the same in our time scale but they sure look different every day – sometimes every minute.
GREAT series! In reading your comments, it always amazes me all the factors you are aware off and take into consideration when you are about to hit that trigger! Any camera in my hands is literally “point and shoot”…(followed by “moan and groan)…Each of these images is so beautiful, it’s hard to pick a favorite, though I particularly love the fling of take off. The soft, mottled complementary colors of the background are wonderful…
You’re right, Patty – there’s a lot of things to think about when you’re anticipating photographing a bird. It can be intimidating when you think about it too much so I usually just fly by the seat of my pants and let instinct take over. It took a long time to develop that instinct though…
That “push-off ” pose—-absolutely THRILLING !
That’s my favorite shot of the series too, Kris – although I do like them all.
Hi Ron, Great series. Probably one of my favorite subjects as well. Great job in keeping the bird focused and in the frame. Just a bit off the optimum sun angle but how often to we get to have perfect conditions. As I mentioned previously, I have a couple of very similar shots I got up in the Ruby Valley last summer that, if you like, I can share. You can send me a private email and I can forward you two shots, but of coarse only if your are interested.
We had our annual southern migratory stop over of Turkey Vultures over the weekend which was fun for photo opps. Boy they are ugly, but wonderful birds. Could have been some 70 to 80 birds. Old timers here say there used to be a lot more, but who knows. Spent a few hours with them early Sat AM with my 1DX and 600mm plus 1.4X. One displayed a wing tab with the making L6. Did a little research on who is tracking them, and apparently a Dr. Stuart Houston out of Saskatchewan may be the only one in N. America doing the work. Sent him an email with a photo of the bird and the location information and date.. That was kind of a fun find. I did not realize that a lot of these birds migrate all the way to S. America for the winter. Hey, I learned something!
Anyway, again great shots. When you finally got them on your computer I trust a grin came on your face. There is always that moment, when you are successful, you go “WOW”.
You’re right about the grin, Frank.
Sure, I’d enjoy seeing your shots. I’ll email you soon.
PS – email sent.
OH WOW (superlatives, etc.)! Like Kim Russell said, it just never EVER gets old. Although I mostly hide it around other falconers (don’t want to be an emotional girl you know), my heart skips a beat every darn time they choose to fly to the fist and it’s beyond addictive. It’s one of those two-year-old, jumping-up-and-down, do-it-again things. What an outrageously beautiful series.
My guess is that’s a second-year female, but that’s just a guess. Doesn’t really matter because the stunning magnificence is just WOW!
I thought it might be a female too, Laura – the bird seemed relatively large.
Don’t know if I shared this or not, but a (relatively) quick way to judge female/male is to look at the tarsus. If it’s a female, the tarsus will be about the size of a AA battery. If it’s a male, it will be about the size of a pencil. Of course, if they’re on the other side of the planet from you… 🙂
Beautiful series Ron! 🙂 Keeping track of them can be a challenge – we have power lines in the vicinity and the camera LOVES to lock in on them rather than the bird! 🙁 I do love backgrounds other than the sky when they “work”. 🙂
Power lines are a pain in the patoot, Judy…
Out of this world, just beautiful shots Ron!
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Dick.
Magnificent, thank you. I never get used to the beauty of these birds. They take my breath away every time. This is a masterful capture.
I appreciate the kind words, Kim.