Red-Shouldered Hawk

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Red-Shouldered Hawk

Exposure Information on Astia: F4s, 600 f/4 AI, TC-14B, Aperture priority set at f/5.6 (effective f/8), matrix metering with exp. comp. @ +1.0; Mounted on Gitzo 1548 and Arca Swiss B1; Cable release. Exposures in the series were running between 1/125th and 1/60th as the sun set. Scan information: Scanned into Photoshop 4 with Polaroid SprintScan 35 Plus. The image was cropped, levels were adjusted and unsharp mask was used to return image closer to sharpness of the original.

Photography questions: 1) Could the image be cropped differently to increase impact? 2) Other suggestions on increasing scan quality and improving color balance? 3) Advice on film and exposure? (I also shot a few rolls of Velvia of this cooperative hawk. However, colors are very contrasty in addition to being highly saturated. There was loss of shadow detail in the originals compared to the Astia, and the colors didn't look natural to me.)

Raptor behavior question: This hawk periodically would shift its weight to its right foot and lift its left foot as shown in the photograph. I haven't noticed this being common behavior in the few other red-shouldered hawks that I have had opportunity to observe. Is this common raptor behavior while perched? It occurred to me alternatively that this hawk could have a foot injury or arthritis/gout.

Thank you in advance for your critique and for specific responses to any of my long-winded questions.

-- William Castleman (WCastleman@compuserve.com), August 19, 1999

Answers

Here is an exposure on Velvia for comparison. Aperture setting on the 600mm was changed to f/4 (effective f/5.6) to keep exposure duration between 1/30th and 1/60th as the sun set. Some sharpness loss in the image is related to the aperture change.

-- William Castleman (WCastleman@compuserve.com), August 19, 1999.

Bill,

I definitely like the Astia version much better.

Awesome shots!

Keith

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), August 19, 1999.

First of all I would like to say it is an excellent shot. Very sharp, very prominent look to hawk's face via his stature. No question first shot on astia is preferred image. I can't help wondering if this would have been even better had the image been taken 15 minutes earlier. I think there is a time before the "orange" phase of sunset where you would have gotten a slight hint of that golden look and a little more "truer" colors and better definition in the body of the hawk. Of course I'm nitpicking, Jealousy is a terrible thing, I wish I had taken it!!!!

-- Steven Sisti (stevesisti@aol.com), August 19, 1999.
Maybe this will turn off the itallics. Nice shot. I'm not sure how you could add more impact considering where the bird is perched. As far as the foot is concerned, I have never seen hawks do it, but I have seen the behavior in most other birds. It seems very prevalent in wading birds, but my Parakeets do it too. I suspect they are just resting. Check out this example of perching Ibises: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View? u=33633&a=447941&p=11449935&Sequence=1

-- Brad (bhutcheson@iname.com), August 19, 1999.
I don't know why the itallics are still there.

-- Brad (bhutcheson@iname.com), August 19, 1999.
If this doesn't turn off the itallics I give up.

-- Brad (bhutcheson@iname.com), August 19, 1999.
I didn't think HTML was CaSe sensitive. Oh well, it is off now.

By the way, my link didn't work, so try this one if you are interested. I tried it, and it worked.

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=33633&a=447941&p=11449935

-- Brad (bhutcheson@iname.com), August 19, 1999.

Brad,

Thank you for fixing my initial HTML coding error and for the link to your ibis photograph. I feel more comfortable now that my photograph shows a natural image of a red-shouldered hawk. - Bill

-- William Castleman (wcastleman@compuserve.com), August 19, 1999.

William very nice photo. Great exposure, color and detail. By the way, I am by no means an expert, but I have observed numerous Red-Shouldered Hawks around my home and never saw one perched on one foot, but I doubt this is anything to be concerned about. Which to mention, I have also photographed a very cooperative red-shouldered Hawk, but he was perched on a wooden pole rather than a nice perch like this one. The natural perch makes all the difference. Donna

-- Donna Bollenbach (cassidy@icubed.net), August 20, 1999.
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