Hawk+ Repost

Nice, Steve. We don't get Coopers in Alaska, so I'm not very good on the ID. They taught me the black cap is less distinct in the female, but that's not a useful field mark in your shot. The DOF is okay by me; the detail in the flank and wing is very good. The angle isn't flattering, and the sharp lighting difference are issues but I don't see what you could have done. I'd be happy to have this shot in my files.

As Jim mentioned not the standard angle for viewing, but you know I still like the photo a lot. You have good detail on the entire bird and the eye shows very well and I get a sense of what the bird is doing. Lovely background and the perch branch runs through the frame at an interesting angle. Good clean view of the subject, that's never a bad thing.

Your lucky to see this hawk in camera range let alone trip the shutter. Love that eye! You wish for all the stars to aline but they so rarely do in avian photography. Is not a bad image nits already posted.

Hi Steve, Your DOF looks pretty good to me for this angle and pose on the hawk. Good job getting light on the eye. For me there's a couple of things about the trunk on the left that are troublesome - it's size and relative darkness make it slightly distracting in general and there's some kind of fuzzy border to it that looks a little funky. What about a vertical crop to get rid of some of it - any more room up top? Just a thought...

Steve,
I really like the unusual pose of this hawk, the detail and the background. Well done!

Steve, I like how you managed to get light on the eye. DOF looks good given the difficult pose. You might think about using a monopod--I get consistently sharp images at 1/1000 using a monopod with my 500 + 1.4 combo, so with the 400, you might be able to get down to 1/500 or 1/640.

Hi Steve,
Looks like you were shooting from a difficult angle. Overall details are good but looks like the focal point was more towards the tail which left the eye soft. That's one of the drawbacks to shooting handheld, you need to maintain high shutter speeds and possibly sacrifice DOF.
Thanks for posting,
Ronnie G.

Thank you, everyone, for your very helpful comments. I’m happy that the image appears attractive to all of you too despite its deficiencies. Brian, I have already converted my hiking stick into a quick-release monopod. It works well but so often, as in this case, the shot requires HH. In selecting an appropriate SS I generally am more concerned with motion blur due to the bird’s motion than due to mine. My impression is that a very slight bird movement can spoil a very sharp focus. In this case, this bird was slower than the little guys I’ve been observing lately. So, I think a lower SS could have worked. Ronnie, the focus point was just slightly lower than dead center on the back of the bird(directly above the left leg). So, I consider your observations accurate. Ron, I agree that the LHS branch shows a “funky….fuzzy border”. I don’t know the reason: it is present in the raw original previous to processing. I’ve posted a vertical crop and cloned out any trace of the LHS branch remaining. The result looks good to me but I think I prefer the roomier original….even with the funny border on the branch.

Great unusual pose with just enough eye contact