From inside my home, I heard the distinct, grating "cak–cak–cak" bird call at Golden Pebble Habitat, Palm Desert, CA (that would be our backyard). I knew immediately it was a Cooper's Hawk. Cooper's Hawk is a medium–sized hawk native to the North American continent and found from Southern Canada to Northern Mexico, and some Cooper's Hawks winter as far south as Panama. But here it was visiting me in Palm Desert, California!
I grabbed my Nikon D810 and my Nikkor 80-400mm lens, checked the camera settings quickly, and softly, quietly stepped outside to locate the hawk. I extended the lens to 400mm and focused up in the trees so I could be ready to capture images of this beautiful bird. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the movement. For some reason, perhaps a courtship display, it was flying around in a frenzy and landing on a palm tree branch. I slowly walked to the side of the back patio, grabbed clear handheld focus, and began capturing images in continuous high mode on my camera. What an experience!
What about the settings on my camera to take this shot? I have done quite a bit of study online watching videos and reading about bird photography with Arthur Morris and Denise Ippolito. Their images of birds are just incredible and I consider them some of the best out there. And one thing I've learned from them is to not be afraid to increase ISO so that you get a very fast shutter speed to capture the flight of birds. Then, something I have learned from my own experience in shooting birds, especially the great horned owl that has often visited me, is to make sure my aperture is not too wide open because then parts of the bird will be out of focus. Normally, if I was using a tripod, I would have definitely been at f/8. But because I was shooting handheld, I knew I needed to be wider open to get a faster shutter speed to avoid blur. So I settled for f/6.3. That aperture served me well because it allowed the beautiful bokeh in the background.
So when I pulled the images into my computer, much to my delight, my camera had caught the Cooper's Hawk in mid–flight. It was one of those sovereigndipity moments that happen sometimes when you least expect it. A God thing!
I processed it in Adobe Camera Raw, then added a touch of the Topaz Adjust filter for clarity and contrast. Then I used a filter I haven't used in a long time, the Nik Darken/Lighten Center, just to bring the eye to the hawk. I added a slight vignette from ON1 Software. And finally, I added a Brighten Adjustment layer in Adobe Photoshop, and then painted it only on the head of the Cooper's Hawk. Finally I added the Helvetic Neue text and changed the color to the dark green from the palm branches.
I pray that you and I will learn to fly by depending on the Lord to carry us up and through every trial. May we all take flight today!
Dear Lord, thank You for carrying us above and through the trials in life and bringing us near to You. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Blessings ♡ Grace
