I thought it would be fun to make comparison posts of photos that I took when I first got my camera until now, which is a span of about 9 months. I know that is not really a significant amount of time, but I feel that with the improvements I have made to my camera equipment and just developing my skills overall that there has been a lot of changes with how I take photos and edit them. So I wanted to start with hawks. They frequent my neighborhood and local parks quite a bit, and my partner and I see them out on our adventures all the time. There’s two species in particular that I have photographed and they are the Cooper’s Hawk, and Red-tailed Hawk.
This first photo that I took was of a Cooper’s Hawk and the quality is really not there. I had used a teleconverter on a cloudy day which really sacrificed anything good about it. I’ve mention before in several previous post about chromatic aberration, and these are a good example of what that looks like. If you’re not sure, it’s the green and purple lining you see around the bird and the tree branches.
I was really excited and proud to have taken these pictures, and I still have appreciation for the work I put into taking them. With the next photo, I feel as if I already have improved a lot with skill, and editing technique. The hawk is still a Cooper’s Hawk, and actually in almost the same place the first photos were taken. I was still having some problems learning how to edit the chromatic aberration out but this was a huge step for me in getting a better quality photo.
Now is where things get really fun, in my opinion. These next few photos are of a very curious Red-tailed Hawk I found near Lake Bella, MN. I got such great up close shots of this gorgeous bird and I am so proud of them. I have mentioned before how I really don’t care for taking photos of birds on power lines, but these are so worth it.
Sticks really do be ruining my day sometimes !
I’ll end this post with my most recent photo of a Red-tailed Hawk. It turned out so beautifully, and again I’m really proud that I took this! I want to continue to make posts like these to showcase my work and all of the improvements that I’ve made.
