![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-6816-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-6816-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nLargely because of this unrelenting, soul-sapping heat it had been nine days since I’d been out photographing birds, so yesterday morning I decided to hell with the heat and went anyway. Of course, the first and ‘best’ bird I photographed all morning was another Red-tailed Hawk.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The juvenile red-tail (a male I believe, based on its pencil-thin tarsi thickness) launched toward me and at an angle as he pushed off mostly with one foot, which provided a leaning, asymmetrical takeoff posture I like a lot. He even cooperated with a head turn that put light on his face and in his eye. He’s sharp throughout, I like the setting and background and the warm early morning light was a bonus.<\/p>\n About 95% of my photos are cropped to the 5×7 aspect ratio I usually prefer but for this image I thought that composition was too long horizontally, so I cropped it to a more squarish 4×5 aspect ratio which I think works better.<\/p>\n You’re probably going to see more photos of this hawk in the future. I intended to post some of them this morning but I have a busy day ahead of me so I didn’t have time to work them up.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Of course, the first and ‘best’ bird I photographed all morning yesterday was another Red-tailed Hawk.<\/p>\n\n