Hawk photo

[tripwater]

Some back story on this shot...

I was driving around looking for a shot and my girlfriend pointed out this hawk perched on a fence. All I own at this point is a 90mm macro lens. I pulled over and stepped slowly to it and took about 2 dozen shots. Well I was not happy with the fact that I did not have a zoom or telephoto with me to get a better shot so I left. I drove about 2 miles back home and borrowed my roommate's 210mm zoom and went back. IT WAS STILL THERE!

I parked on the side and walked back down and was able to get surprisingly close to him and he did not even flinch. I got within 10-15 feet of it. In fact you can see in the pic, it is in between posts. Well I was the next post away from the post closest to him. In fact, most of the time I was taking pictures this close, it often turned its head away from me as if not threatened by me at all! That was awesome.

Out of many shots I only had a couple of keepers. A combination of coffee jitters, excitement and a zoom lens fully extended without a tripod or image stabilization blurred most of my shots. But I managed to get a few. All in all this picture may not be the best shot in the world but the story and my memory of being this close to a hawk will always be a cool memory!

 

[TiCoyote]

That is a pretty regal looking animal. I would like to see a sharper photo. I'd also like to see his face turned toward the camera. Did he only have one foot?

Thanks for the story and the photo.

 

[tripwater]

Yeah it sucks that I did not have a tripod with me and the lens did not have IS because I just could not keep steady. But it did have 2 legs, just had one pulled up. Here is another photo after it moved later to a power line

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Matty-Bass]

No.2 would be sweet with a crop just around the bird, it's sharper than No.1. Yet, it's still blurred a touch which is unfortunate. At least in No.2 the hawk is looking at the camera. What a neat bird!