![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-0340-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0340-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nThe bird was an immature Red-tailed Hawk with a stand of phragmites directly behind it and those phrags may have helped to guide it in a perfect direction for good light and eye contact during liftoff and flight.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-0341-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0341-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nI like this dynamic posture at the moment of launch.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-0344-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0344-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nAlthough the phrags were quite close to the bird I like having them back there instead of just homogenous sky.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-0347-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0347-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nThis might be my favorite\u00a0photo\u00a0in the series, partly because I like the flight posture, the hawk’s look of concentration and\u00a0I think the shadows of the bird on the phrags add interest.<\/p>\n
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There’s only four shots in the series because I screwed up. I had my lens on this bird for almost nine minutes before it took off and when it finally did I jerked my lens in response to the sudden action\u00a0which made me lose sharp focus on the hawk or clip body parts in many photos in the series.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I sit on a bird for a half hour or more before it takes off and during that time the tension builds because birds are fast at liftoff and at these focal lengths it’s hard to keep them in frame and in focus after they leave the perch. You really have to concentrate!<\/em> Jerking the lens in response to a long-awaited launch is a natural reaction that photographers have to resist because doing so ruins so many images. It’s a bad habit that I was often guilty of when I first started photographing birds but thankfully I’ve learned to resist\u00a0that nasty\u00a0impulse most<\/em> of the time. But this time I reverted to my old ways and paid the inevitable price. I had to delete\u00a0about seven\u00a0shots in the series because they were soft or body parts were clipped. Or both.<\/p>\nBirds don’t give us a do-over in situations like this so I’ll be kickin’ my\u00a0butt for a while over this one.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Plus a bad photography habit I can’t completely shake.<\/p>\n
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