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I've been fortunate enough to get some good in-fight shots of the local red-tail hawks, so my goal lately has been to get one launching into flight. Yesterday, as you see here, I got lucky. woo-hoo! Legs are still extended, still touching the branch.
About 20 min prior to this, I saw this RT in the top of the tall fir tree up the hill, then I saw it swoop away. I figured it was headed for the tall eucalyptus tree 1/8 mi down the street from me. Sure enough. From the end of my driveway I got some shots of it landing in that tree. Then I walked west down the hill for a closer shot. Sun was medium low to the west, so all was strongly backlit as I approached. I wanted to get to the sunny side, past the tree. Because of the rains earlier that day, there was a lot of glare off the asphalt, as well as the glare from the sun in the sky. When I was about 30 yards from the tree, she took off. I got a couple in-flight shots but nothing fabulous. I walked back up the hill a short ways, then chatted with a neighbor who was out waiting for the mail to be delivered. Soon the RT returned to the tree. I walked toward the tree again, this time on the other side of the street. The sun's glare from behind the tree was really bad. At some point when I couldn't see, the RT took off. The neighbor yelled something to me. RT circled a couple times then flew off, and I managed a few decent shots. Then went back to chat with the neighbor. By then, a dense cloud blew in front of the sun. Glare was gone, but light was greatly reduced, and the cool sunset glow was gone too. Temps cooled, too. Pretty soon the RT landed in the eucalyptus tree once again. I walked down the street, ignoring it until i was past the tree, then looking up with a very good view. (see below) I had the lens out to 400mm (just right focal length for the distance), and shutter on HS. When I saw her fluffing her feathers I knew she'd be taking off in a few seconds and I kept my eye in the viewfinder and lens trained on the hawk. It paid off.