![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/coopers-hawk-6937-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-6937-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPlus a shocking recent example of cheating in a prestigious nature photography contest.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 800. 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>\n Yesterday was our hottest day of the year so far (low 80’s) so it felt good to spend some time in the cooler\u00a0mountains. Just as the sun was peeking over the mountain to my right this Cooper’s Hawk swooped in and landed\u00a0on a post ridiculously close to my pickup. It was too close and in poor light but within seconds it lifted off and landed on another post in front of me.\u00a0The hawk was now at a\u00a0more appropriate\u00a0distance from me and the light angle was much better.<\/p>\n It gave me very little pose variety before it took off again but I was pleased with the shots I got. Cooper’s Hawks are an unusual species for me to photograph and on those rare occasions when I do have a chance with them it’s usually in an urban setting so I loved seeing this bird in a beautiful and wild mountainous river valley (although I do wish the habitat was more apparent in my photos).<\/p>\n Because the hawk and the post are both oriented vertically I’m not particularly fond of this composition because there’s too much dead space in front of the bird for my tastes\u00a0so…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I decided to try a vertical crop. If my readers have a preference for either version I’d appreciate knowing what it is. As usual I need all the help I can get with aesthetics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On an unrelated note:<\/p>\n Readers are aware of how much disdain I have for the rampant cheating that goes on in nature photography contests which is one of the reasons I never enter them. This past week a particularly egregious example of cheating in photography contests reared its ugly head.\u00a0One of the\u00a0winning photos in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017 competition has been disqualified because the photographer, Marcio Cabral, apparently used a\u00a0taxidermy specimen in the image.<\/p>\n It’s a dramatic photograph of an anteater approaching a glowing termite mound in the middle of the night. The scene is lit by bioluminescent click beetles on the mound\u00a0attempting to lure termites out to become beetle prey.\u00a0But it’s been determined that the anteater is a\u00a0stuffed taxidermy specimen so the image and the photographer have both\u00a0been disqualified.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/coopers-hawk-6937b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-6937b-ron-dudley\\"")
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