Birds Cooper Hawk 2/21/21 Boston, MA

Lens Creations said:

Second outing ever attempting wildlife photography and this flew about 20 feet over my head into a tree. What a rush. Hopefully my skills progress as I'm new to photography in general.
Would just like to say that I love seeing all of you peoples work and I'm looking fwrd to learning a lot on here.

R5
RF800 f/11
1/640
ISO 1000
slight tweaks in LR

View attachment 220

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Kathryn Milner said:

Congratulations, being so new to wildlife photography and making such a beautiful image!

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marktroxel said:

How do you like the 800mm f/11 so far? I just got my R5 and the 100-500. I'm debating getting the 800mm vs. getting the 1.4x or 2.0x teleconverter. I like the idea of less weight from the 800mm f/11 since I tend to walk/hike and shoot, but there's more versatility with the extenders on the 100-500.

Great capture, especially for only your 2nd outing! FYI, though, that's actually a Red-tailed Hawk. They have the "bib" of brown across the chest that is visible in your image and a shorter tail where the wings almost reach the end of the tail when perched. The red would only be seen from behind in adults. Cooper's (and the similar Sharp-shinned Hawks that we see in our area) have a much longer tail where the wings don't reach the end of the tail. I've attached an image with a juvenile Coop to compare.

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Lens Creations said:

Thank you! I'm pretty sure I just got lucky hahaha. If I remember correctly, this image isn't even cropped. He was so close I kept trying to back up further to fit him into the frame. I deleted a handful because part of him was chopped off.

Thank you for the info Mark! I tried comparing to a few others and apparently still came up incorrect haha.
As for the 800...Honestly it's my first lens with any sort of reach. Also, I haven't really challenged it much. Both times I took it out, it was nice sunny days. In the shade I bumped the ISO up a bit and it didn't struggle and had no real noticeable noise. I think for the cost, it's well worth having in the arsenal if someone doesn't have the 100-500. With all that said, my next purchase is the RF100-500. Yes it's winter and yes I'm new but swapping out to my only other lens (RF50 1.2) isn't exactly fast. I'm thinking that if I toss the 100-500 on there with or without the extender, it will be easier to grab shots that the 800 won't handle because the subject is too close. My image above for instance. I kept having to walk backwards through brush near the waters edge to even fit the whole bird in the shot.

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Lens Creations said:

Second outing ever attempting wildlife photography and this flew about 20 feet over my head into a tree. What a rush. Hopefully my skills progress as I'm new to photography in general.
Would just like to say that I love seeing all of you peoples work and I'm looking fwrd to learning a lot on here.

R5
RF800 f/11
1/640
ISO 1000
slight tweaks in LR

View attachment 220

Click to expand...