Moonrise, Red Shouldered Hawk

Composition? Is the moon too subtle? Does the framing of the tree

work? Thanks.

The moon is rather too subtle - had you not mentioned it Sam, I may not have noticed it for a bit. Though, not sure how you might improve on that without losing the nice milky overall of the sky. I like the way you used the branches to frame the shot, a small pity is the dark branch coming so close to the back of the bird's head. She must have been a beauty to see in real life.

I may try to burn in the moon in photoshop (though I'm worried that it could look unnatural). This is a tough one for the photographer to judge - I know the moon is there, so my eye goes right to it.

 

The best thing to have done probably would have been to wait - this was shot at evening time, and the bird was just sitting here posing for us. We probably spent 15 minutes taking him from various angles, walking around 12 or so feet from him, moving the light, watching him watch us and the large meadow next to this tree. Another 15 minutes and the sky would have been dark enough for that moon to pop a bit more. But by then there was another hawk...

 

The moon also pops a bit more on a couple of shots with smaller aperatures - I don't think this shot focuses quite to infinity. But there is noticable blur on those (no tripod - I used my daughter's head to brace the camera on these, much to her delight).

 

The moon IS subtle, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Like you say, if you adjust too much, it will not look natural. Maybe a slight darkening of the sky would do it.

Hi, Sam,

You captured rare scenery, not easy shot and very good as is.

Talking about moon and composition, I got some crazy ideas.

The moon is almost not noticeable, but it brings additional meanings to picture of hawk. What about make much closer crop from right and bottom and use clone tool to bring the moon closer to branches, so branches lines would lead look to it? In my imagination it will give the same balance and emphasize well two subjects. Just a thought...

Best wishes!