It's all Julie's fault.
She put together a photo contest this past week and encouraged folks to send their best raptor pix. All in good fun, no prize except the glory and you could vote for as many of the entries as you like. However, you could only enter one photo.
gah.
For someone whose hard drive has a couple thousand raptor photos (and that's after doing a lot of deleting over the years), this was not an easy task. I decided to make it easier on myself by just choosing from photos that were already on Flickr, figuring that a lot of the best ones had been uploaded to share in previous diaries. (This is not to say everything I've put on Flickr is good - sometimes I just have to get enough photos together to do a diary. Perhaps you've noticed...)
I finally went with this one:
As I explained at the time, it was a tough choice between posting a photo that had been taken in-hand or one from the field. There are advantages and problems with both.
Working with birds in hand can allow you to get some beautiful portraits:
But only if the birds cooperate and strike a somewhat natural pose, something they're not always inclined to do. The birds often contort around in odd positions so they can keep their eyes on you (understandable) and redtails also have a tendancy to have their mouth open. This photo is a bit more typical of the poses they're likely to strike, especially if the person holding them is less experienced or nervous. (This may not be a natural looking pose, but it sure gives you a good look at their complex mouth structure... click on the photo to get links to a bigger version version.)
When they do feel comfortable with us, they'll allow a bit of portraiture and sometimes it really lets us capture the personality of the bird. This one really gets to the "I mean business" attitude of a Cooper's Hawk.
In-hand photography also allows the possibility of catching the birds' features in ways that it would be hard to do in the field. Northern Harriers have very distinctive faces, with an owl-like facial disc and long bristles around their bills. They also have dark shading that gives them an almond-eyed appearance, resulting in this very serene profile.
Some photos aren't so hot technically, but do add the occasional moment of humor...
Out in the field, you don't have to worry about the birds looking natural, but that are many more obstacles to getting good photos. This is one of those areas where equipment helps; I have decent but not awesome gear. For me, there's still a strong element of luck in getting a good shot out there... there are so many great things that I've seen that are (unfortunately) just bird-dots in photo form. Oh well. Just makes the good ones more special.
Even when you're close enough for a decent shot, atmospheric conditions (I'm looking at through you, fog) can get in the way. It doesn't bug me too much, since that's part of the story here.
Osprey harrassing redtail near the osprey's nest.
Another problem with trying to photograph raptors out there in the world is that they can be involved in some gory activities. This isn't too bad, but my friend has a a few examples that should probably be labeled NSFM (not safe for mealtime).
Redtail with half-eaten rodent.
Before I got my DSLR, most of my close-up-ish photos from the field were taken via digiscoping. I was able to get some reasonably good results, especially considering that I hand-hold the camera, rather than having an adapter. (I'm often sharing my scope with other birders.)
Golden eagle shows its weaponry.
Gotta sneak one lineatus in here, this one digiscoped at Monterey. I should crop it or otherwise futz with it a little and get rid of the vestigal scope corners, but... not this morning.
The one thing that I've been pretty unsuccessful with is flight photos, but this one of an osprey (before it went after the redtail above), turned out reasonably well.
Another osprey (they were cooperative last year) shows that even if you're out there in the wild, it can occasionally look staged anyway. Cue the dramatic lighting. This almost looks like one of those museum dioramas, but it's taken at Marconi State Park in Marshall (on the shores of Tomales Bay).