December 8, 2018 — Point Reyes National Seashore
Mr. Red Tail sat on a rock about fifty yards down a ravine, in perfect view but with his back to the camera. I waited. And waited.
With scant warning he took flight, heading out to sea before turning a tight one-eighty and coming right at me. No. Not at me. At his next perch.
He picked his spot. Flared. And grabbed his rock. He gave me not one look.
(Nikon D500, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR zoom. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 2.2; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)
AMAGA Photography Blog 
Two nice shots. I really like the second with the eye having a bit of catch-light.
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Thank you very much. The second one is slightly off perfect focus. It was right on the border of acceptably sharp, but a couple of judicious hits with smart sharpen in Photoshop made it better.
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Have you tried Shake Reduction? Sometimes it’s too much but often helps a bit with focus even if it is not from motion blur.
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I will try it. This particular out of focus was simply a range error.
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Might not be of any help then, but never bad to try a layer. I’ve yet to try my 100-400 on something in motion.
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I have a Tamron 100 – 400 which is splendid. I got swallows with mine. Do you know how hard it is to catch a swallow in flight? I just brought the beast on this particular walk because I wanted the extra range.
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That’s the lens I have also. I’ll have to try it out. There are still some birds around here besides our winter residents, but not many. I shakiness will be a challenge to it image stabilization.
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Was worth the long wait, I agree with Steve about the second photo.
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Very glad you like it. Did I mention something earlier about eventually posting a red-tailed hawk?
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perfetto!
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Grazie!
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Did your camera automatically keep focusing on the hawk or did you do that manually?
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Both my camera bodies are configured for back-button focus. Just smashed my thumb down on the button and held it while keeping the subject centered, which is quite a challenge at the equivalent of 750 mm with an 8 pound camera/lens.
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I’d have trouble wielding such hefty gear.
Another question is whether you thought about removing the branches that reach in from the bottom of the second picture.
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Photography is its own built-in exercise program. I thought long and hard about those branches. I finally decided to leave them in to give landing a bit of context. It would be cleaner visually without them. It’s kind of a coin toss. There was one really ugly branch that I did remove.
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These are two wonderful shots! Very nice!
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Thank you very much. I hope you saw the retrospective in the last post.
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Two wonderful shots. Congrats!
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Thank you very much!
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You’re welcome ☺️
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More often than not, the willingness to wait is the key. The talons’ visibility in the second photo is a nice touch.
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I agree with you completely. I’m glad you noticed the talons. They add an immediacy to the overall picture, I think.
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Like Linda, I noticed those talons – a very nice detail. And I was also happy to see the glimpse of rusty red in the tail. Patience rewarded. 🙂
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Thanks you. It’s true. I waited a long time for those shots and then they came: click click.
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Excellent, Michael – both pictures beautifully caught, and the lower one in particular looking very menacing – but unless you were near its active nest, I don’t imagine it would be a threat. A 🙂
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He was concentrating on his perch. No threat to me. He was about 50 yards away.
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Perfect birds-in-flight shots.
Excellent work, Michael.
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Thank you very much!
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Exciting images with great clarity and use of aperture. Terrific captures, Michael.
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Thank you very much.
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PS. I spent the day at Pt. Reyes yesterday. Gorgeous.
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I’m envious.
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So free and weightless looking 🤓 no effort it seems gliding here Michael…lovely photographs ☺️ smiles Hedy
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Thanks very much!
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Terrific shots …he looks like he doesn’t mind his photo being taken! What a beauty ..
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He was concentrating on sticking his landing. I was simply irrelevant.
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Fantastic. Not something I could do on my I-phone. 😉
Though I understand the newer models have much better features, still retaining the small volume, weight and max discretion.
Thanks for the post.
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No. Not hardly with an iPhone. That was using every last one of the 750 mm, and then a crop in addition to that.
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Sigh… 🙂 I lived in East Africa as a teen. Had an Instamatic… Then I got an Asahi Pentax for my birthday, with a 50mm, a wide angle, a 100mm and a zoom. Still have it. Night and day for animal photography. Congrats on the shot. The equipment is but a fraction of the final result.
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Thank you very much. Although when the bird is 50 meters away, the equipment does help.
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Absolutely. And to know how to use it. I suspect modern equipment also helps with shutter speed, thinking on a bird’s flight. And since we’re no longer limited to 36 exposures, we can click away a dozen shots and select the best 2. Cheers Michael.
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The modern gear does help. But it really does help to know how to use it. Thank you very much.
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