Piers Blackett
About the Image(s)
It was late in the afternoon when I spotted a Red-shouldered Hawk near Prairie Dog Point on the west shore of Lake Hefner within the city limits. It was in fairly dense bushes and therefore difficult to find focus - but it decided to take off and perch about fifty yards away on a high branch and then look down into dense grass with intesity. The take-off was a rapid downward swoop followed by flapping wings in the tall grass below the tree mostly concealed from view, and then, with luck, returned to the same perch with prey, a mouse which by then appeared to have succumbed to the rough treatment. At that point with a clear view and sun behind me I was able to get in a burst at 20 fps focusing on the eyes and mouse in the same plane. There were almost no edits except for cropping. My settings using a Canon R5 with a 100-500mm lens were 343mm, f/10, 1/3200sec, ISO 2500
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8 comments posted
I've quickly gotten to love the Red Shouldered hawks since taking on seasonal residence in SW Florida. They are the most prevalent hawk in this region. So fortunate you were able to spend the time watching this beauty and viewing it's lunge to catch a meal.
The image certainly tells a story. I can tell from your high shutter speed that you would have loved to have caught the hawk in flight, but that same shutter speed also worked well for the (relative) stationary scene you captured.
The bane of bird photography is sticks and branches that interfere with a clean, uncluttered image, but we have to take what we can get.
This is a wonderful capture. Well done.   Posted: 03/04/2025 20:17:13
I meant to say that I did denoise, but routinely drop all the raw images from the day into DXO PR and find them denoised an hour later in a separate file. I seldom need to add some denoising in photoshop. In this case no problem at ISO of 2500.   Posted: 03/05/2025 10:12:32
I have a suggestion to use photo editing software to brighten up the Hawk's eyes to make it look more vibrant.   Posted: 03/07/2025 05:50:58
Well done   Posted: 03/16/2025 22:48:34