Post your Raptors

Robin W

Robin W

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An adult Redtail Hawk. He only allowed for 2 quick shots before he took off and I didn't get the chance to move over to get the branch out of the way. I spotted him while walking out to a bridge carrying my tripod to take pictures of the eagles who recently rebuilt their nest. The eagles old nest and tree blew down in a wind storm last year. I was glad to see they rebuilt however they weren't home today.

RD5_2292.jpg



RD5_2293.jpg
 
hark

hark

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Probably the same juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk I've been photographing lately. Cross-posted in my thread.

_DSC3117 low res.jpg
 
hark

hark

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wev said:
Its crop -- a secondary food storage sac. Common in birds with irregular feeding opportunities, like raptors.
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Thank you so much for letting me know, wev. I had no idea they had something like that.
 
P

PhilM_TX

Senior Member
hark said:
This is amazing to capture it without disturbing it.
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Equally amazing is how these beauties live among the humans and, at least for now, they are not bothered or encroached upon. :)

We were able to photograph them from the car window(s), never really showing them anything more than the vehicle.
 
Andy W

Andy W

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Thanks Cindy! They were pretty far away, that's why the low shutter speed worked. I have been wanting to ask, how do so many of you get close enough to capture the superb hawk shots I see on here? Many times I've stopped the car 1/4 mile away from perched hawks only to have them take off. :confused:
 
hark

hark

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Andy W said:
Thanks Cindy! They were pretty far away, that's why the low shutter speed worked. I have been wanting to ask, how do so many of you get close enough to capture the superb hawk shots I see on here? Many times I've stopped the car 1/4 mile away from perched hawks only to have them take off. :confused:
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This hawk I've photographed several times doesn't appear to be afraid of me.

In the first image, the hawk was initially perched on a wire a little further away but spotted something 20-25 feet away from me. It flew down there so I took its pic from where I was standing. I was too close to fit it in the frame, and since this is a 300mm prime with a 1.4x teleconverter, I couldn't zoom to show more.

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This second image was cropped only slightly to center the hawk better. All the rest of the images are with a 300mm prime and 1.7x teleconverter (so equivalent to 500mm focal length).

_DSC3265 low res.jpg


The third image is a screen shot of the NEF showing the original composition of the above image. I didn't have to crop much at all.

screen shot NEF.jpg


And the fourth image wasn't cropped at all. I had a row of bushes directly behind me with a fence behind the bushes so no way to move backwards. The hawk already had its prey and stayed put while eating.

_DSC3452 remove branches low res.jpg


When it finished, it hopped to a different branch but didn't fly away. I moved and took the following pic which is cropped from a horizontal to a vertical.

_DSC3484 low res.jpg


So in my case with this particular hawk, it's just luck. @wev might be able to shed light on how he gets so close to his birds. He has amazing images that are sharp and exquisite.

During the summer I photographed a Green Heron. Even that bird wasn't afraid, but for those images, since the teleconverter was only 1.4x (compared to 1.7x for most of these hawk photos), I did crop some of them.

Over the weekend I spotted another Blue Heron. Just as I was parking the car, it flew off. And here I thought I had parked far enough away. So just luck for me. Not sure about anyone else. Quite frankly I'm surprised I was able to stand close enough to fill the frame with these.
 
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hark

hark

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Andy W said:
It looks like the 1.7 is working quite well for you!
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Thanks, Andy. :) I wound up getting 2 to compare. The first pre-owned TC was used in the hawk image above with the purple sky. I'm not sure why there was such a color shift, but every photo taken from that angle has purple sky. Plus it seems to front focus quite a bit.

So I also ordered a refurbished one for comparison (yay, blue sky), but first I need to perform the AF tuning to before determining which one will work best for me. According to reviews, the 1.7x TC hasn't performed as well as the 1.4x. But I am surprised I'm getting these results which are definitely better than I anticipated. :encouragement:

Since I'm not able to hand hold a super zoom (tendonitis in my right hand), I thought I'd have to settle for the focal length that my 300mm f/4 and 1.4x TC provided - and that is 420mm f/5.6. This 1.7x provides a focal length of 500mm f/6.7 (such an unusual aperture) but the aperture is larger than I anticipated. And that is great!
 
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