{"id":31274,"date":"2015-05-11T05:05:52","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T11:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=31274"},"modified":"2015-05-11T05:05:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T11:05:52","slug":"dark-morph-swainsons-hawk-in-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/11\/dark-morph-swainsons-hawk-in-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Morph Swainson’s Hawk In Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

You have to get lucky to get good light on a raptor in flight when the sun’s high in the sky. Typically many parts of the bird you see will be shaded and show relatively little detail as the bird flies above you with the sun above the bird. Depending on the time of year (in winter the sun is lower at a particular time of day than it is in summer) I usually end up deleting most shots of raptors in flight taken in late morning or early to\u00a0mid afternoon.<\/p>\n

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\"swainson's1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 250, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, tiny corner of pole removed,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A week ago today as I was driving a dirt road\u00a0to a remote lake on the border of southwest Montana and Idaho\u00a0I encountered this dark morph Swainson’s Hawk perched on a power pole. As usual I scoped out the bird with my lens but it was 3:40 PM with the sun still high in the sky so I had\u00a0no real intention of photographing the\u00a0hawk except for documentary purposes. But when it unexpectedly took off my photographers instinct\u00a0took over and I fired off a burst.<\/p>\n

Its initial direction of flight was at a\u00a0quartering angle away from me but then it quickly turned and banked to my right which gave me a momentary\u00a0well-lit dorsal view of the bird. I caught the splayed tail, a glimpse of the\u00a0feet being tucked away for full flight and good light on the face with a catch light in the eye. Despite the fact that the hawk is flying away from me, I like the shot.<\/p>\n

My point: though it’s true that the higher the sun is in the sky the less chance the\u00a0photographer has of getting a well-lit raptor in flight, it can be done.<\/p>\n

With a little luck and a cooperative bird…<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You have to get lucky to get good light on a raptor in flight when the sun’s high in the sky.<\/p>\n

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