Home delivery of photo subjects for the hawk obsessed

[sandboa]

I think many of you probably have the same problem I do. I like photographing hawks, but most of my perched hawk shots look like this -



Yesterday, as we were about to head out for a bite to eat, I noticed a fast motion in the back yard. When I looked out the back door, I spotted this Cooper's Hawk with the female Great-tailed Grackle he had just plucked from tree in our yard.

I ran up to get my camera, which happened to have my Sigma 500 f/4.5 mounted on it, and ran down and snapped a few pics out through the patio door. It allowed a few pics, but then got disturbed and flew off leaving his mortally wounded catch behind. (Sorry buddy!)



I'm not in love with the bokeh I get from this lens, but I can't afford to shell out $$$ to replace it with a 600 f/4.

Sony Alpha 700
Sigma 500 f/4.5 APO
Handheld (8 lbs of lens!)
1/250th at f/5.6 at ISO 800
~ 20% cropped off original
cRAW

[Stephen P]

Hey Chris, I have this lens as well and it is unforgiving when handheld. You did a excellent job with it handheld for sure. I love the Cooper's image with the prey, a dead grackle? I'd love to have an image like this in my collection.