I was heading to the coast to try for something (anything) at low tide when, at the bottom of our driveway, I stopped at the mailbox and saw I had driven right under this hawk sitting on a fairly low utility wire. He’s a regular around that area and I’d been planning to sit down there some day and hope for a shot. To my amazement, I got out the camera (with the right lens on it) and skulked across the road on light angle. He glanced at me and continued his vigil. I moved to a fence post to lean on and he ignored me. I was hoping he would take off and was trying to handhold and keep him framed for flight. The camera got too heavy so I went back to the car for the tripod. He ignored me and I got him re-framed. I was holding down the button for eye-AF to save a precious second if he flew and the battery started getting low. I went to the car and got a fresh one. He ignored me. Then he took off and I wasn’t fast enough to keep him in the frame. Then I noticed he had landed about 50 ft in front of me and had one foot in a vole hole. I got a few shots and he took off – for a tree right over my car. I managed to position myself as best I could on the edge of a steep dropoff. Not the best view but all I could get through large tree branches. I got 250 keepers with maybe a dozen worth working on. Didn’t make the coast.
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon R5, 100-500 at 500, ISO 5000, f/10, 1/1000 sec. Linear profile in LR to help tame highlights and the usual tonal adjustments. Denoise in PS . Cropped to 26% of original frame. Should have gone to the car for the 2X but didn’t want to push my luck any further.
Wow what a story. You both seemed to be hanging in for the catch you wanted - lunch and a photo (or 250!). What a beauty of a bird, too. I like the choice you made to keep the shot on the light side - the lower contrast and soft colors make the kill shot a bit less gruesome. Poor little voles down there at the bottom of the food chain. Post more!!
Hi Diane
Most of the time when I spot a bird having the right interaction with nature and lighting, as I open the car door it flies off. I guess this is one time a vole can have a positive effect on the neighborhood. The soft color palette, lighting and sharp eye and beak bring the view eye to the high point of this photograph, as shown in this goldensprial.
Peter
Thanks @Kris_Smith and @peter! Peter, I never think to use the Golden Spiral overlay, but a friend is always talking about it. I just crop by instinct, but I should pull it up more often. I use the grids to level when appropriate. I had to look up how to rotate it – Shift-O.
After watching him carefully devour this poor thing, I decided to do vegetarian for dinner. (We love very rare steak but this was a bit much.)
Very good, Diane. Well worth foregoing the coast. I find the eye intriguing. I don’t recall ever seeing such an odd shaped black area (pupil?) at the bottom of the eye like this. The composition is excellent. Well done.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank – I scanned through the files and the eye in each is dominated by reflections of the branch – each one different depending on the head angle. Here’s a blowup of the posted image. I’m not sure the oval-shaped dark area is actually part of the eye.
