That is really some great pictures, it's rare to get that kind of shot without going thru a bunch of trouble with a blind or a way to hide and be out in the weather for long periods of time. It also looks like you have a perfect angle for where they happen to be, you must be living right !

I'm not living as right as I should be but we are pretty lucky.  Mama hawk fed the young ones just at sunrise and flew to a nearby tree and perched for about an hour or so.

A good opportunity for mom to preen and pamper herself

She had a visitor too

Had to yell at the kids a few times

Heading back to work

I probably missed it, but what lens are you using now, and what shooting data?  D-700?  (I'm not familiar with it.)  Outstanding sharpness depth and color IMO!

LarryC:

I probably missed it, but what lens are you using now, and what shooting data?  D-700?  (I'm not familiar with it.)  Outstanding sharpness depth and color IMO!

Hi Larry, The first shots in the thread were shot with a Nikon P80 point and shoot.  I "broke" my old Fuji S2 Nikon compatible SLR about two months ago so I've just been using the P80 and I've been pretty happy with it - about 10 megapixels with a 28-450mm zoom range (35mm equiv) and vibration stabilization.  

I just got the Nikon D700 last Friday from B&H and I'm loving it - 12 megapixel with a full frame CCD (FX format) so my lenses work in the "normal" focal lengths.  It's a very nice camera with no faults that I've discovered.  With the D700, I've been using a Nikon 80-400mm ED VR most of the time for the hawk pics.  For a few shots, I used an old manual focus 500mm f8 mirror lens - I like the effect it renders to out of focus areas.  It's nice to be able to yank out the old lenses and use them as I had with film cameras (no more of that 1.4 multiplication stuff) and I can't wait to put my wide angle lenses, especially my 8mm fisheye, on this camera.

Really great pics, Sput, especially the last group, with good subject separation and great simultaneous focus on both the hawk and his/her visitor as well as focus generally.  It took some looking, but I finally saw the double-line/doughnut hole effects of the mirror; I think you switched back, didn't you?

80-400 ED VR just sounds like a stupendous lens, and the results are stunning IMO.  I very much like a full frame camera.  Can you hand-hold, or do you use a tripod, and what head?

Hi Larry.  Yes, I switched back to the 80-400mm - good eye.  I think the results are better.  I've been quite happy with that lens.  It's pretty heavy but not as much as the fast telephoto primes in the same range.  With the VR, it's hand holdable up to 200-250mm with shutter speeds exceeding 1/200th or so - but I'm not rock steady either.  Hand holding beyond 300mm is a gamble - maybe one out five decent ones in my experience.  It's slower to focus than the "S" lenses but still pretty good with the D700.  Panning action results are very good using dynamic focus and VR.  By comparison, I have a 70-180mm micro that's sharper (I really like that lens btw, I sold my 80-200mm f2.8 shortly after I got the 70-180 micro.)  I also wish I still had my old 300mm f4 AF for these shots - even with a 1.4x teleconverter, that was one sharp lens.

I'm using a Bogen tripod with a Bogen 410 head (see pic.)  That head has knob controls similar to surveying equipmet so fine adjustments are pretty easy - it's also more compact than the lever type designs.  Unfortunately the carpet pad is pretty thick so there is still enough shake from the camera operation that I'm using VR on the tripod even though that's a no-no. 

Many thanks, Sput.  I've not been into Nikon SLR lenses for some time, so still have a manual focus 300 f/4 and the very heavy 80-200 f/2.8.  I didn't even know about a zoom micro 70-180, may have to look into that.  I have a Gitzo tri, a rather esoteric product with the colletts, and a ball head which is getting sticky, so I'll look into your setup.

I'm still mourning the loss of Kodachrome 25.

Very cool pics. Make sure you keep them outta your dental floss bushes.

Ah, another Zappa fan.

Yep Larry, in the 35mm format, there's nothing more elegant than a Leica loaded with Kodachrome sitting on a Gitzo.

Two of the young hawks took to the air yesterday.  I was at work but my wife got to see the first one take off.  By the time I got home it was sitting at the top of a tree in our front yard making new friends.

I grabbed my camera and as I waited for the second one to fly, it had a mesage for the paprazzi (I'm just posting this if anyone was curious .)

After a few false starts, it finally made the short flight to a nearby tree - this is the take off for it's first flight.

Those are gorgeous birds, better than watching day time TV.

 Excellent photos, thanks for sharing.