Young and stupid

Ken Childs · Jan 9, 2011

Canon EOS REBEL T1i
EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
ƒ/8
320mm
1/400s
ISO 400
Flash not fired
Fri, 07 January 2011 1:24 PM
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows

Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @ 320mm
Av mode
1/400"
F8
ISO:400
HH
LR and CS3

Every January I get a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk take up residence on my farm. The first time it happened, I was able to get as close as 15 feet without disturbing it so I asked the nice people at Cornell why I was able to get so close. They said "it's just young and stupid".

This one was about 40 feet away. The wind was gusting to about 25 mph at the time.

Randy Stout · Jan 9, 2011

Ken:

Nice,even illumination, good to see both eyes so well lit, makes them look very lively.
Wind blown plumage,soft BG (form and color)

The perch is the only minus for me. Glad you cropped it fairly tight from the bottom to reduce its impact.

Cheers

Randy

Herb Houghton · Jan 9, 2011

Nice shot Ken. I like the eye contact on this, only nit would be the perch like Randy stated.

Herb

Ken Childs · Jan 9, 2011

I agree about the perch but this fence post is where they always end up. It's next to a low spot in one of my pastures that offers good wintertime bug hunting.

A couple of things I should have mentioned in the OP....the light was coming from the right so I lightened the left side of the head and added the catchlight in the left eye.

Dumay de Boulle · Jan 9, 2011

Super BG and head on stare, nice exposure and good detail..Perch doesn't bug me

James Yule · Jan 9, 2011

Nice clean image, I like it. I always though a "perch" was a fish, anyways don't bother me either. Good Job

Stu Bowie · Jan 9, 2011

Good head on capture, and I like the eye contact. Why is it that some raptors always seem to perch on fence posts.

Daniel Cadieux · Jan 9, 2011

Even with the less than perfect perch (yes, it is a fish name too!!) I would have given MORE room at bottom for the virtual tail-tip. For some reason one eye looks ahrper than the other?

Arthur Morris · Jan 9, 2011

Ken, Your farm. Your fence post. If it returns to the same spot you could replace the fence post with something more attractive or tape and addition to the top. Most times the birds will take right to whatever you drop in.....

Andrew McLachlan · Jan 9, 2011

Love the stare! Very nice Ken, I think Arthur has a good suggestion to set-up a perch there and see if he returns.

Ken Childs · Jan 9, 2011

Arthur Morris said:
Ken, Your farm. Your fence post. If it returns to the same spot you could replace the fence post with something more attractive or tape and addition to the top. Most times the birds will take right to whatever you drop in.....

Unfortunately this post is part of a fence line around one of my horse pastures. Anything nice looking I put there would be quickly destroyed by the horses. Either that or they would injure themselves on it.

I'll have to take a look at putting something nearby, just outside of the pasture.

Chad Caswell · Jan 9, 2011

ken, I agree about doing what it takes to get that "Stupid Hawk" on something other than your fence post

He looks comfy there though, you might have trouble convincing him there is a better spot to perch

Nice shot!

Young and stupid

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