bird photography : cooper's hawk

Rushing off to a wedding photo shoot for some friends, John spotted this large Cooper's Hawk--likely a female--perched in his backyard, looking for a bit of lunch. He managed a couple of quick photos before the hawk flew away.

Equipment: Canon EOS 30D Canon EF 300mm f4L IS with 1.4x Teleconverter Settings: f6.3; 1/200 sec.; focal length at 420 mm; ISO 500 Date: October 20, 2006 4:33 pm Location: John and Beth's Backyard / Vienna, VA Photography Notes: The 24-70mm f2.8L lens John had on his camera at the time is a fine lens indeed, but not suited to capturing a photo of a distant bird; he had to scramble to swap out lenses quickly before the hawk could fly away.