![\"red-tailed-hawk-8454b-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/red-tailed-hawk-8454b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nplus\u00a0seeing the details of bird athleticism in my images\u00a0that happen too fast for me to notice them in real time.<\/p>\n
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1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n It was a slow morning for birds yesterday in Tooele County and this\u00a0Red-tailed Hawk was one of only two birds I photographed in over three hours. The only chance I had for a pleasing shot was at takeoff where I might get lucky and not have wires in the image. One of my continuing goals is to learn to read and anticipate behaviors as a tool for avoiding clipped or cut off body parts at takeoff and that’s something I often preach about here on Feathered Photography. So lets see how I did when this hawk took off.<\/p>\n As soon as the hawk turned on its perch and stood slightly erect to look over the insulator I suspected it would take off to my left which meant it would have to clear\u00a0both the insulator and the wire. Usually when hawks take off from power poles they take advantage of their elevated position (and save energy in the process) by taking off horizontally or slightly downward. But this bird would have to clear the insulator first which meant it would have to lift its wings to a vertical position in order to get as much lift on the first down-stroke as possible.<\/p>\n If I wanted to avoid clipping wings in that dramatic vertical position I’d need to leave plenty of room above the bird.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n An uncropped version of the same image shows what I was seeing through my viewfinder. Did I leave enough room up top?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Nope, I sure as hell didn’t!<\/p>\n As often as I’ve been in this situation I still make this mistake on a semi-regular basis. When those wings stretch out they really stretch out. Because of\u00a0all the unattractive hardware I was dealing with I didn’t expect to get an appealing image anyway but I\u00a0needed the practice and I obviously still<\/em> do. It would at least\u00a0have given me some\u00a0satisfaction to have not… clipped… that… wing!<\/p>\n Ok, on to something else I learned from this hawk. I continue to be amazed at the physical dexterity and athleticism of birds in their strategies for avoiding potential obstructions in flight. Avoiding them\u00a0typically requires lightning-fast reflexes so we often don’t even notice\u00a0those reactions\u00a0in real time. But the camera sometimes reveals what we miss.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Raptors\u00a0nearly always push off hard with both legs and leave their feet trailing behind for several wing-strokes as they gain momentum before they tuck them under their tail. But this bird had an insulator and wire to\u00a0go over\u00a0so\u00a0as extra insurance that it would have enough room above the wire it brought its left foot forward and prepared to\u00a0push against the wire if necessary in order to clear it.<\/p>\n Did it actually push off the wire?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n No, it didn’t. But it was prepared for that eventuality if it\u00a0needed to. This image is so soft I’m embarrassed to include it but it’s good enough to help make my point.<\/p>\n I know I tend to be more interested in minutia like this than many of my readers probably are but all aspects of nature fascinate me and I like seeing these little details that happen so fast I don’t even notice them in the field. The possibility of stumbling across something interesting like this makes reviewing and culling images significantly less painful.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n PS – Photographers may notice that I’m using one of my older 7D’s again instead of the relatively new Mark II. I don’t even want to talk<\/em> about it until I figure out what’s going on… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" plus seeing the details of bird athleticism in my images that happen too fast for me to notice them in real time.<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed-hawk-8454-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/red-tailed-hawk-8454-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed-hawk-8455-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/red-tailed-hawk-8455-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed-hawk-8456-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/red-tailed-hawk-8456-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed-hawk-8457-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/red-tailed-hawk-8457-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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