Coopers Hawk

Gallery: AvianPosted April 17, 2011125 views6 comments

I have a pair a Cooper Hawks building a nest in a tree in front of my home in San Diego Ca. They move very quickly from tree to tree collecting branches for their nest. Needless to say I have quite a very blurry shots of these guys.

Nikon D300s
1/3200
f/5.6
ISO 800
Sigma 120-400mm
Handheld

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on April 17, 2011 at 2:37 PM

No blur on this one Mike,very well caught.

Keith.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on April 17, 2011 at 2:50 PM

Good flight shot, Mike. Wonderful opportunity; I look forward to seeing more.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on April 17, 2011 at 3:06 PM

Mike,

I'm not seeing too much motion blur but it does look to me like you didn't have enough DOF to get the bird sharp from the front wingtip to the head. The head is softer than the front wing tip. For me getting the head sharp is crucial. I can also see a halo around the bird, some times that is difficult for people to see as shown on the screen so I did a screen shot of your bird in photoshop, placed a temporary threshold layer on it so that I could show you better. By carefully selecting & masking then sharpening only the primary subject(s) you can eliminate the halos. You can see the halo in your image best at about level 156.

*edited for a typo

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on April 17, 2011 at 4:21 PM

Mike, your persistence paid ioff here.
Pretty sharp, but it looks as if the focus might have been on the wing rather than the head. If you had the light to keep a high shutter speed at F8, rather than 5.6, it would have helped.
Great colours, nice placement of the bird between the leaves, and natural BG.
A larger version would help us see the detail.
Nice catch! looking forward to more..
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Walters on April 17, 2011 at 6:07 PM

Nice and sharp! Should be fun trying to get more images of these hawks. Good luck!

Registered on October 30, 2005, 405 Posts, 3693 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Harbour on April 17, 2011 at 6:43 PM

Nice capture of a beautiful bird. It sounds like you will have more opportunities, and I am looking forward to more images of this hawk.

Registered on January 4, 2008, 113 Posts, 2416 Comments