Cooper’s Hawk (adult)

Gallery: AvianPosted January 1, 2017157 views8 comments

Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

Place: Phoenix, AZ
Date: December 25, 2016, 9:08 am
Equipment: Nikon D7200, Nikkor AF-S 300/4, hand held
ISO 800, aperture priority spot metered, 1/500th @ f/8
Raw, PS CC on Mac, 81% of frame

As happens most winters we now have an adult Cooper's Hawk visiting the yard. We’re not sure yet if this is in addition to or a replacement for the juvie of my recent posts. But when this bird landed I grabbed the camera and shot through the dirty glass patio door.

Honest critiques requested; all comments appreciated. Large version provided as always.

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Barb Pflaum on January 1, 2017 at 1:24 PM

Good idea to shoot this through the glass door before he flew away. The detail, color, and pose are beautiful!

Registered on January 14, 2009, 316 Posts, 2724 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on January 1, 2017 at 1:30 PM

A great Christmas present, Richard. Excellent job on the darkish bird against that really bright bg. Exposure on the bird looks spot on. I'm seeing just a bit of red fringe on some of the branches and the top of the hawk's head. Does PS CC have lens corrections in it? I've used the ones in LR 5.7 and they sometimes do a really good job removing fringes.

devil

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on January 1, 2017 at 1:53 PM

A real nice look at the hawk. Good pose and detail; nice catch light. I like the soft green background. Some thoughts, for what there worth, would be to crop to remove some of the negative space on the right and some on the left for a more vertical composition. In the camera raw filter in PS decrease the shadows to bring out the wing and branch detail and decrease the highlights and whites of the background. I tried this and the hawk does pop more against the background. (BTW, I learned this concept from one of your comments on one of my posts last year.)
Happy New Year. devil

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on January 1, 2017 at 2:13 PM

Wonderfully curved perch, and I love the clearly natural setting - the Hawk where it should be ! Cheers, Hans

Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on January 1, 2017 at 3:50 PM

Richard, I think this is good as is, and I thank you for posting. I've seen many juvenile Cooper's Hawks (and gotten thoroughly confused), but this is my first look at an adult. cool

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hansen on January 1, 2017 at 7:08 PM

Nice capture on this one Richard. That dirty glass patio door has sure been getting quite a workout lately!

Registered on May 5, 2011, 161 Posts, 908 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on January 2, 2017 at 10:24 PM

Not sure if you normally spot meter Richard, but either way, a very good decision to spot meter this with the HK BG to properly expose this hawk. Nice work!

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on January 3, 2017 at 12:21 AM

Not sure if you normally spot meter Richard, but either way, a very good decision to spot meter this with the HK BG to properly expose this hawk. Nice work!

I've assigned a function button on each of my Nikon bodies to switch the meter to spot whenever the button is depressed. Normally I kep the meter set to Matrix, but any time I have a bright background such as this I can easily engage the spot meter without taking my eye away frm the viewfinder. I know it is engaged when I see the shutter speed drop significantly.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments