Hawk Attack
Cooper's Hawk on a flyby to check me out. Less than 15' and closing fast. Passing 3 feet directly overhead.
Cooper's Hawk on a flyby to check me out. Less than 15' and closing fast. Passing 3 feet directly overhead.
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Feb, 2015Views
580
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Awards
Top Shot Award
Winner in birds of prey Photo Challenge
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
Peer Award
Superior Skill
All Star
Top Ranks
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Top 20 rankTop 30 rank week 2Top 20 rank week 1
PRO+
PRO+
synergySB52
March 15, 2015
Congratulations on your Birds of Prey Challenge Award! You richly deserved it! Masterful photograph!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I captured this image after dropping the kids off at basketball practice in Groton, MA. He was on a branch hunting chipmunks in a stone wall, next to a small field across the street.Time
December 31, 2015, one of the shortest days of the year, I managed to capture this image as the light was falling fast. At 2:46 p.m., the sun was already beginning to drop towards the horizon and I was worried that I didn't have enough light.Lighting
At 2:46 p.m. on New Years eve, the sun low in the sky and was directly between me and the hawk. A complete fluke because I was just getting into the best position to shoot him clear of any trees or branches.Equipment
Canon 1Dx and Canon 500mm f/4 lens balanced on my open SUV window. It was a cold day and I wouldn't have gotten out of my car to shoot him if I couldn't have gotten a better shooting position. I guess its accurate to say that, in this case I used also used $40k heated blind.Inspiration
Living is a rural community, I always have my camera in the car ready to shoot. When I saw this hawk in a tree, I pulled up about 60' from him. From my car window, I snapped about 40 pictures of him watching the field when he suddenly took flight... directly at me. In the 10 picture sequence, its clear that when he launched, I was the subject of his attack. Minimum focusing distance for my lens is 14.8', he is about 15' in this picture because I lost auto-focus after this shot. I didn't realize that I was the focus of his attention until looking at the images later. He silently passed 2' directly overhead. I'm sure his flyby was more out of curiosity than an interest in attacking my 500mm lens.Editing
There was too much blue in the background and I used some de-saturation to bring less attention to the background. Also used Nik Color Effects Pro to bring out some detail in the hawk.In my camera bag
Canon 1dx, Canon 500mm f/4, Canon 300mm f/2.8, Canon 1.4 and 2.0 extenders, extra battery.Feedback
After 20 years of seeing wildlife on an almost daily basis and never having my camera with me, I decided to start taking my camera with me everyday. With few exceptions, my camera is always in the car with me. In the past year I've taking some great images that I would have missed otherwise.
