![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-0705-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0705-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nFor me this was an experimental photography technique for birds in flight. I’ll definitely be using it again.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/5.6, 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 morning at Bear River MBR this adult Red-tailed Hawk was perched with “his” back to me and looking a little nervous. He was too far away for quality photos while perched but if he took off and filled more of the frame with his wings I thought I had a small chance for decent flight shots. I say “small” chance because he was facing away from me so I figured he’d take off in that direction. I already have more butt shots than I’ll ever need so to be honest the main reason I trained my lens on him was to confirm the ID and age and to see if there was anything unusual about him.<\/p>\n Then on a whim I decided to try an experiment. For flight shots I nearly always use a single active focus point at the center of the frame. I’m “in the habit,” I’m used to it and pretty good at it so that’s just what I do. But it’s always very difficult to keep a single focus point on an erratic bird in flight and I often lose focus on my subject so this time I decided to activate 15 focus points and see what happened. Since the bird was probably going to take off away from me I wouldn’t be out anything if it didn’t work and I’d still get to try my experiment.<\/p>\n But the hawk surprised me by turning to his right on the perch to take off (perhaps there was a breeze from that direction) and I didn’t have time to switch back to one active focus point so I just went with the flow to see what I would get.<\/p>\n The following nine photos are sequential except for three I omitted because his face was hidden by a wing or he was too close to the bottom of the frame. Lets see how successful I was at keeping the hawk in focus for that long with 15 points activated.<\/p>\n Keep in mind I wasn’t close to the bird. To give you some perspective on the distance each of the last 8 photos in the series was cropped to exactly 40% of the original image (8MP out of 20MP).<\/p>\n Ok, I’ll stop jabbering so much. Lets get on with it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/5.6, 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 I left out the two takeoff shots because in both of them his right wing covered his face so this is the first photo in the flight series.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/5.6, 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 My burst rate seemed to be fairly well timed with his flapping speed so I was lucky to mostly get wing-up or wing-down postures (instead of horizontal wing positions).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/5.6, 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 In a flight series like this I always notice how the legs and feet are gradually tucked up against the tail as the hawk gains airspeed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/5.6, 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 I almost lost his face behind his wing again but this peekaboo pose works well enough for me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/5.6, 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 By now I’m sure you’ve noticed the errant white feather on his shoulder. That feather is apparent throughout the series.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/5.6, 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 I was surprised that this shot in particular is as sharp as it is because this is all the room I had at the bottom of the original frame. But somehow one of the 15 active focus points remained locked on the bird this far away from the center of the frame.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/5.6, 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 By now his feet are almost completely tucked up against his tail. Quite a contrast to the first flight shot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/5.6, 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 I like the curled primaries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-0716b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0716b-ron-dudley\\"")
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