Ferruginous Pal

I continue to have the good fortune to get to see, and shoot a wintering Ferruginous Hawk that seems to pose for me. It’ll sit there perched allowing me to blast away then eventually fly and almost always in a hoped for direction for me. Well, here it is “performing” for me a couple of mornings ago.

Specific Feedback Requested

Cropping? Blue sky hue?

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
D500, Nikon 200-500 lens, Nikon 1.4 TC, hand held, 1/3200th, f 8.0, 400mm, ISO 720, AI Clear, cropped to 3676 x 2747

1 Like

Sweet, Dave. Lucky you! I’d say you could back off a bit on the crop and since you ask, the blue of the sky does seem off and over-saturated. I’m wondering, since you obviously have plenty of light, if you might want to experiment with a bit more depth of field? It looks as if the far wing might be just a bit soft and since you have the light it might be cool to try to get it tack sharp.

Wow, this is a beautiful shot Dave. You are fortunate to have that bird around, but still have to “be there” to take advantage. Not sure about the sky, but I know here in CT the sky can be just as blue in the Winter. Lots of great detail in the feathers and you’ve filled the frame nicely, so cropping is a personal decision; I wouldn’t do any more and if you cropped less you’d just have more blue sky, which you have plenty of already.

Absolutely wonderful catch!!! The crop works for me, but the sky could go just a bit away from Cyan by adding a bit of Magenta to the blue, or at least desaturate it a little.