Red Tailed Hawk

@ 11.21.13. Several hawks tend to spend winters in a few relatively open and/or wooded areas near my house. On any given day, you might see one or a half dozen within a half mile radius of the area. Shooting pics from the road is almost mandatory since all surrounding land is private and to make things even harder, there is both a middle school and high school within sight distance so locals and the police often take a dim view of long lensed shooters with the police on average, being far more tolerant than the locals.
Taking good pictures is far harder than it used to be when people were far more tolerant... but it is what it is so I'll keep doing it.
Steve

We have Great Horned Owls that we only see in the winter when branches are bare. A pair will sit in adjacent trees and wag their "ears" at each other. I have been wondering if I could get a photo - I would have to use telephoto in dim-nearly-dark conditions.

I live near two school zones here, too - I haven't had any problems with using my camera or binoculars. But there have been some High-school students who have been stopped for carrying band instruments in cases past the grade school. It isn't the school staff that complain - it is the parents of the little kids (who forget that some day there little darling with be a lanky awkward teenager, too.)

Pollen: You didn't mention what type of camera gear you're using but if it's a DSLR, you'll be amazed at the decent high ISO performance of some models these days. The image above was shot at 1000 ISO on an extremely dark and cloudy afternoon and then processed in PSE 10 to lighten the bird significantly and then slightly sharpen.

I learned early on that you cannot "save" an image you never took so I take multiples of anything and everything that gets my attention regardless of the shooting conditions. If I can save a few shots with very little editing then I made my goal of getting an image of 'X' (whatever you were interested in at the time). At worst, I may have to delete the whole set but in any case, I did try... Note here the phrase "very little editing". I love to shoot, I just hate to process so I don't do any more of it than I absolutely have to.
Try different settings, try different times of day including those times when the books say you shouldn't, bump up ISO, try anything and everything and you'll probably get the shot you want. It may not be the PERFECT shot but still, you'll end up with more than you had originally and you sure won't hurt the camera by trying.
Good luck and I'll be waiting to see your owl images ;o)
Steve

Well, my camera will fit in my pocket - but it one of the nicer pocket sized and does take remarkably detailed shots. Most everything I post here has been cropped by 1/2 - 3/4. And it has a menu for different shots. The disadvantage is the menu is one of those multi-lingual symbol types. I will have to puzzle over options to figure out "low light but no flash, telephoto not foreground". The other challenge is figuring out whether Or not I even have the owl in the frame!

Ah, the small camera menu option game. Been there and done that. I have several of those smaller cameras and while nicely sized to fit in a pocket, the subject matter is usually gone by the time I figure out what setting the camera thinks I should use.
Still, use what you got and remember that what you have is still better than nothing.
Steve

I went with the small pocket size because I found my pictures are much more likely to turn out if I actually have a camera with me. The big camera with the bigger lens doesn't do me any good in the coat closet. The small camera goes everywhere with me.

I also used to keep a pair of big binoculars with one broken side in my car. I figured no one would bother to steal them but they still made an excellent telescope. My new fuel efficient compact car doesn't have room for all the junk I used to haul around in the old van. So my compact camera has to do it all most days.

This message was edited Nov 23, 2013 6:33 PM