Red-tailed Hawk

Wow, love it! The intense look and the wonderful perch, outstanding.

Ray

Really a fine work! Perch, pose and BG all perfectly done. What kind of pine is that?

Exceptional image! Tack-sharp, nice pose, excellent perch, and cool BG.
I thought at first I'd want a little more room on top, but not by sacrificing any of the tree/cones.
Since this is nearly perfect, (tiny nit) I'd suggest healing the lower left edge to blend in the OOF tree bits and dark area.
Now - perfect!

Sandy

Sweet! When everything comes together, it is so obvious. This is really great. Love it.

Gary,
Outstanding . . .

Gary, this is BEAUTIFUL. Understated elegance. Great job on...well, pretty much everything! Wonderful pose and look from the hawk and beautiful textures in the conifer. Great separation and bokeh, and intoxicating dynamic range. In fact in my opinion the perfect balance and quality of the darks, mids and lights may be one of the secrets of what separates this one from the masses and creates that immediate impact. Well, that coupled with everything else you did right!

Just a parting thought. I initially viewed this on my phone and zoomed in to show my kids...it makes a VERY attractive vertical as well.

Can't wait to see some bull elk from this year's rut captured by that new camera of yours!

Thanks for the comments everyone. Phillip, I'm pretty sure this is a Lodgepole Pine, the most common species of pine in the foothills and Rocky Mountains of Alberta. Sandy, I noticed the lighter area on the left also. I would prefer it be uniform like the rest of the background but felt that the pattern was different as well as being slightly lighter in tone. I elected to just leave it rather than get into the cloning thing. I have some images with the hawk looking the other direction where the background is indeed all creamy but I like this back glance a little more.

Terrific colors and nice composition.

Excellent!!

You've gotten a lot of great positive feedback on this image and I really can't add anything. But I did want you to know that I like it very much. Great compostion, excellent detail, great color palette, good FG and BG. Looking for more good stuff from your new toy.

A real stunner! Very, very nice, Gary! Sharon

Can only repeat what's been said. This is stunning. I really like the soft lighting, and the separation between subject and BG, achieved from both DOF and from tone differences.

Nice, Gary. New camera? It's amazing how good the dof is at f7.1.

Gary,
Simply amazing. I'd go with a vertical comp as has been suggested but either way, simply stunning. You've got that camera dialed in. Just beautiful Gary.

Handsome indeed A simply beautiful red-tail portrait Gary!!! Great pose, excellent details in both the bird and perch, along with complimentary background. Nature photography at it's finest.

Ken Archer

Nice one Gary, I like seeing the bird perched on a tree instead of a pole or barbed wire. Well done, cheers, Hans

Great setting - almost like a tree decoration. I very much like the almost square format & the location of all the elements in the frame. I might be tempted to try toning down the bright spots bottom left.

Really stunning photo Gary. The bird, perch and backgrounds colors look wonderful together. As others have mentioned, you might try removing or toning down the white spots on the left side. Other than that it's just perfect.

I spotted an adult RT along the roadside the other day, it was competing with a vulture for some fresh deer road-kill. Stopped & watched for a bit because that's all I could do..didn't bring my cam
Fine image Gary, very nice work

Really nice composition, Gary. I love the perch, too. Well composed.
Jaymes

Beautiful bird, beautiful perch, beautiful BG, all in one shot - love it.

What a stunnintg image gary - the crispness of the bird and tree against the wonderfully soft background

Stunning image Gary, wonderful overall composition and the detail and clarity on the larger image are superb, excellent shot, the larger image was a pleasure to view.

Beautiful image, Gary. I like the way the hawk grows out of the tree and the head turn is perfect for the composition.

Just an awesome image - everything spot on!
Cheers, Greg
www.gregoakleywildpix.com

I wouldn't change a thing!

No doubt this would get the WP!
Congrats on a very exceptional image!
Sandy

Excellent, Gary. Congraulations on the EP!

Congratulations Gary on a very well deserved WP - this is a beautiful image.

Wonderful image. I especially like this perch and the pose of the bird. It's in perfect harmony.

Edwin Kats

Congrats on the well deserved pick, Gary. I really like this rich setting for the shot.......not the usual one we see.....love it.

I can't add anything to what has been said. This image just stopped me when I looked at the thumbnail. Everything has come together so beautifully that there is nothing to say except "WOW". There are a lot of outstanding images on this web site, but this one stands out at the very top of them all.

Beautiful image, nicely placed and processed. Great job!

Great capture Gary, just seeing this. wow! :)

Just beautiful!! Congrats!

Sorry I missed this on the first go around Gary....really terrific work and congrats on the WP!