Photography Favors the Well Prepared to Photograph a Red Tailed Hawk and its Prey
As in any other endeavor, photography often favors the well prepared. On a recent Saturday morning I was once again reminded of the importance of having your camera setup and ready to go. I am not sure what photographer instilled this lesson in me, but I am sure that he or she was wise. And they were right.
Red Tailed Hawk
So many times I have gone to take a photograph of something only to find that there was no memory card or the battery was dead! Sometime I find that the last time I used the camera I changed some obscure setting, such as mirror lock up, that happens to be completely incompatible to what I want to photograph at this moment. By the time I correct these things, the moment is over and the opportunity to capture that photograph is long gone.
From these experiences I have gotten into the habit of putting my camera away such that it is ready to shoot. I double check that there is a fresh battery and memory card in the camera. I also like to ensure that I return my settings to what I consider “standard photography”. For me, these settings are:
- Manual Exposure – this is simply where I am most comfortable
- ISO 100
- f/8.0
- Shutter speed between 1/50th and 1/500 of a second
- Auto focus on
- Single shot (one image for each shutter click)
- Single exposure (bracketing off)
On this particular Saturday morning I was sitting in the den. playing on the computer while my wife made our morning coffee. As she was looking out the kitchen window a very large Red Tailed Hawk flew into the yard killing a pigeon. As she screamed about what was going on, I was able to quickly grab my camera out of the bag and pop on my 70-200mm lens and take a quick photograph out the window. I was not happy with the hazy look to the image, and quickly came to two conclusions. One, I really needed to wash the windows and two, that I needed to get out of the house if I was going to get any kind of decent photograph.
As I ran out of the house I adjusted my settings a little – I simply increase my ISO to 400 and opened my aperture to f/5.6 to let in more light, while decreasing my shutter speed to 1/320th of a second to help freeze the action of the Red Tailed Hawk as he dealt with his prey. I hid on the side of the house and shot around the corner. I only managed to take 3 photographs of the hawk before he flew off with his prey, but by being prepared I was able to make those three photographs count. In the first and third photographs the Red Tailed Hawk was looking down at the pigeon, so you could only see the top of his head. In the second photograph I caught the scene that you see in this post. After the third photograph the hawk flew off with his prey, and the moment was gone.
By keeping my camera in a “ready state” I was able to get a photograph of the rare sight of a Red Tailed Hawk and its prey , and a moment that lasted literally less then a minute has been captured for a lifetime.