![\"red-tailed-hawk-5823-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-5823-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI’ve photographed a lot of Red-tailed Hawks recently and the streak continued yesterday morning near the north end of\u00a0Utah’s Promontory Mountains.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The last four images in this post are sequential shots in the burst without a skip.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n As the bird exploded into the air I captured this push-off pose that always impresses me with the athleticism required for launch.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n In the next frame I caught the arched back with the wings down after the first down-stroke.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.\u00a0After this shot I started to lose sharp focus on the hawk, probably because of the proximity of the textured background.<\/p>\n For my money backgrounds can make or break\u00a0an 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.<\/p>\n That’s one of many reasons I’m glad I live near mountains\u00a0and often photograph birds with them as my backdrop.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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.<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed-hawk-5844-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-5844-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed-hawk-5845-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-5845-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed-hawk-5846-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-5846-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed-hawk-5847-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-5847-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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