{"id":96540,"date":"2021-03-27T05:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=96540"},"modified":"2021-03-27T05:24:43","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T11:24:43","slug":"red-tailed-hawk-series-takeoff-and-in-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/27\/red-tailed-hawk-series-takeoff-and-in-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawk Series – Takeoff And In Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Junipers and their berries are always a welcome addition to the settings of my photos.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, 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

Two weeks ago tomorrow I spent quite a while waiting for this adult Red-tailed Hawk perched atop a juniper tree in northern Utah to take off. ‘She’ wasn’t quite close enough for quality photos while she was perched and besides, she’s largely hidden by greenery. But when those expansive wings spread out they can help to fill the frame and provide some dynamic flight postures so I thought it might be worth the wait..<\/p>\n

Eventually she took off to my right. The following seven photos of her taking off and in flight are sequential shots in a burst with no skips so we’ll see the good with the not so good when it comes to image quality. I posted one of these photos twelve days ago.<\/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

As expected she launched into the north wind coming from my right which initially slowed her down a little in flight. In order to avoid the higher branches to her left she had to get a lot of lift out of that first wing downbeat so she raised her wings as high as she possibly could.<\/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

She got the lift she needed but unfortunately my shutter timing cast a shadow on her head from her right wing. I was lucky to still get a catch light in her eye.<\/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

In the next shot I wasn’t so lucky.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, 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

And then my diabolical friend Murphy tantalized me by allowing good light on her face and eye but causing me to clip her right wing.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, 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

Not a great flight posture and her head is partially shaded. Oh well, this shot is a little soft anyway.<\/p>\n

But thankfully all the stars were in alignment for the next photo.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, 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

This is my favorite shot of the series, the one I posted twelve days ago. It’s part of the series so I’m including it again.<\/p>\n

At the end of a flight series it’s my habit on Feathered Photography to say something like “After this shot I lost focus on the bird so this is the last photo I’ll include”. But this morning I decided to break that mold and show you how dramatically awful it can look when that happens. In the 1\/10th of a second between this shot and the next one my single active focus point…<\/p>\n

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went out of its ever lovin’ mind and completely lost its lock on the bird. I kept the hawk completely in frame for several more photos but all of them looked about like this. Once you’ve lost focus lock on a bird in flight it’s much more difficult to reacquire it than it would have been to maintain it. And maintain it I didn’t.<\/p>\n

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As a student of birds I like to see the dynamics involved in takeoff and flight so when I post a series I sometimes include every shot I took. It’s a given that some will be better technically than others but in a series I don’t want to miss anything.<\/p>\n

And that’s why you’re seeing the good, the bad and the ugly today. When I post ugly I post really<\/em> ugly.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Junipers and their berries are always a welcome addition to the settings of my photos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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