Same Hawk - Different Day

Canon 1D Mark III
Tamron 200-500mm f/5.0-6.3 @ 500mm
1/500 sec @ f/8.0 ISO 400
Handheld from the Driver's Seat

Hey folks,

Here's another image of the same Red Tailed Hawk taken on our last morning in Ridgefield NWR. The morning light was SWEET!! Sure the fence post isn't "natural" but ya takes what ya gets!!

So lemme kow what yall think of this one please.

Rick, great shot, especially since you grabbed it impromptu. The feather colors are quite good, and the fierceness in the eye was captured great, even the silhouette of that one SHARP claw on this hawk. The BG is smooth and nice contrast-wise against our feathered buddy. Only nits: the diagonal blob in the LLC seems to distract, and maybe clip a ½ inch off the light blue top? Feels just tough too much room up there. The fence post works for me, renders a view of the reality of their environment.

Good job! I'd be happy if this was in my portfolio (that I haven't created yet).

Excellent shot Rick! I agree with Paul, but I would take it a bit further on the crop and just dump the entire sky portion of the image. That would really focus attention on the bird.

Great capture Rick. I agree with Curtis and would crop out the sky right at the transistion between light and dark. The light area draws some of my attention.

I'm slowly coming around to believing fence posts are as natural as any perch for some species, so that doesn't bother me one bit. I could see cropping out a bit of sky, but don't make it too tight.
Nice sharpness and light.

I agree with all the above.....boy that was easy for me. :) Just the little twist of the head makes a difference also. Cliff

I get to see the prints of these great images. AWESOME. Nancy