A couple of hawks from this week.

Closest a hawk ever let me get, I shot this out the passenger side window on the side of the highway.



This one was the same day, also let me get pretty close, I only got 3 shots and two were keepers.



I linked both from my gallery, I'm not too familiar with that so I hope they work...

[Adam]

Great capture- I like the pose in the second! A bit more sharpness might have been nice, but it isn't easy to accomplish with birds!

[Tamia]

I'm impressed you got so close, Pete. Of course the car helps. Normally I'm on foot or on my bike, and I never get close enough to hawks -- they sky before I focus, usually. Nice job.

[Paleo Pete]

Adam - thanks, I started to run the sharpening tool on these but didn't, I prefer to do the least editing possible. I like to see just what comes off the camera. I did sharpen one, but neither of these. I agree the second one could be a bit sharper but I left it alone. I had trouble all day getting good clean focus. The heron I shot later was just barely a keeper, and then only after some sharpening.

I think I like the first one better, I got a better shot of the eye. That's not easy to get...

Tamia - Thanks, I usually can't get close either, even in the Jeep, for some reason these two didn't bail soon as I pulled up. NOrmally they do before I can focus, same as you described.