Ireland - redtail hawk

I am new to this board, but I have thick skin, so let me have it. However, you may have to explain to a newbie.

A picture of Ireland, a red tail hawk, at Oak Mountain State park in Hoover, AL. Taken 10/16/2010 with a Canon 7D, 100-400MM ISL at 100MM, ISO 100, f4.5, 1/125.

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Welcome.

Next time try to get into a position that shows the hawk's eyes. Most of the time when taking photos of animals you want to get the eyes in the photo, out of the shadows, and in focus, that is where the emotional impact is most of the time. Since you had good light you should have also increased the shutter speed, don't be afraid to bump the ISO to 200 or 400 since the images will stay virtually noise free.

Here are a couple of pictures showing the eyes.

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2nd one is good. It is blown out above the beak and around the neck, so hold that back a little.

Hey wait, that hawk looks just like the ones here in America! That's not Irish... Well, The bird (named Ireland) is a bit overexposed and the color is a bit off. Try warming it up a bit. When exposing you have to decide what should be most important, the background or the bird.

I'm not too keen on #1 for the reasons mentioned, although if you'd got it all in focus it would've been better. #2 is good, although it is slightly blown on the white feathers as mentioned. I like it though. #3 is quite nice, but I don't like wildlife shots that show a captive bird, or some kind of 'trickery', such as feeders, etc. I think the best bird/wildlife shots are ones where there is no sign of human presence, but that's just my opinion. Maybe cropping the gloved hand out and some of the space on the right side?

Thanks to all. I really appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Jim, I agree with you. Oak Mountain State park operates a bird rehab center. They try to rehab birds, particularly raptors, and returned them to the wild. Ireland, named after Bill Ireland, a philanthropist who led efforts to preserve wildlife in Alabama, was injuried as a nestling and after rehad could not be return to the wild because of a grip problem with his beck.

vpnd, I am not sure what you mean about "warming it up a bit". Could you or someone explain this to me?

TheLaird, What does "hold that back a bit" means?

afviper, I admit most of my shots so far have been taken with a lot (ISO and shutter speed) in auto mode. I need to find a mentor locally that I can spend some time and learn.

Again, thanks all!
roger

the color tone of the bird is not brown. for example on the head shot #2 there is more blue than brown.

My favourite is the second but as mentioned previously, the exposure is just a little too much. If you shot in raw, you could recover a little more detail.

TheLaird, What does "hold that back a bit" means?
During post processing, select the blown out whites and reduce the exposure. If that does not work, then see what a bit of burning will do.