Dark juvenile Red-tailed Hawk lifting offDark juvenile Red-tailed Hawk lifting off – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/800, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited

Quite often I don’t have much time at all to get ready to take images because you need to get close to the subject, find a good angle of light and make sure your camera settings will produce the best image for the conditions. This dark juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was difficult to find the right exposure for because of how dark it is in contrast to the very light tree bark. Before I could get the exposure right the juvenile hawk lifted off…

Dark juvenile Red-tailed Hawk fly byDark juvenile Red-tailed Hawk fly by – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/800, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited

And flew past me. The images came out better than I expected though and I am happy with a few from the series of its lift off and flight. And it is such a handsome individual too.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Red-tailed Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.