{"id":60118,"date":"2019-09-09T06:55:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T12:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=60118"},"modified":"2021-04-15T03:51:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T09:51:25","slug":"immature-swainsons-hawk-in-changing-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/09\/09\/immature-swainsons-hawk-in-changing-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Immature Swainson’s Hawk In Changing Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ImmatureImmature Swainson’s Hawk in flight after lifting off from a gravel road \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 640, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I shared an old post with a scenic photo of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a> yesterday on my Facebook timeline and because I did I wanted to scroll through my photos from that trip and I found a series of images of an immature Swainson’s Hawk I’d photographed exactly five years ago today. I remember that the light that afternoon was constantly changing and since it varied from one second to the next that meant that I had to be on my toes and that I changed my settings quite often.<\/p>\n

Because I photograph in aperture priority the settings I change the most are my aperture, exposure and ISO and if I change any of those it affects my shutter speed.<\/p>\n

Prior to taking the photo above of the young Swainson’s Hawk in flight the hawk had been on the ground on the gravel road and I could tell that it was going to take off so I bumped up my ISO to have a shutter speed at or above 1\/1500 because I’ve found that works well to freeze the motion of the wings of these raptors most of the time. I also bumped up my exposure setting to +0.7 because it was a bit dark at the time due to the clouds. What I ended up with was a well exposed, sharp flight photo of this young raptor where the motion of the wings is frozen.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Swainson’s Hawk close up in low light \u2013 Nikon D810, f8, 1\/800, ISO 1000, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

When the young Swainson’s Hawk landed on a fence post nearby I knew I needed to change my settings again because it was so close and since I wanted more depth of field so I bumped up my ISO to 1000 to gain shutter speed in case the raptor moved on the fence post and at f8 I had sufficient depth of field.<\/p>\n

My Nikon D810 handles higher ISO’s and noise extremely well so I wasn’t concerned about noise but even at ISO 1000 this young Swainson’s is sharply in focus and nicely exposed, in fact I could have used a higher ISO.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Swainson’s Hawk in a lift off pose \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/250, ISO 250, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

When the light was better I was able to lower my ISO and have enough shutter speed to get the sharpness and details that I was after but for this particular series of images of the young hawk though I dropped it too low because right after this photo was taken the immature Swainson’s lifted off and with a shutter speed of 1\/250 all I got were out of focus blurs from that lift off series!<\/p>\n

Live and learn.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Swainson’s Hawk with an eye on the sky \u2013 Nikon D810, f10, 1\/2500, ISO 800, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

When the immature Swainson’s was perched on this fence post in front of some mountains with low clouds I decided to keep my ISO & shutter speed high because the light was changing rapidly and I wasn’t sure what the hawk was going to do.<\/p>\n

This photo session with an immature Swainson’s Hawk reinforced how as a bird photographer I need to not only be keenly aware of changing light it also showed how I may need to quickly change my settings to get the photos I want.<\/p>\n

Sorry if I seem a little scattered this morning, I was having server issues while trying to write this post.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Swainson\u2019s Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This photo session with an immature Swainson’s Hawk reinforced how as a bird photographer I need to not only be keenly aware of changing light it also showed how I may need to quickly change my settings to get the photos I want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513,27,223,12,206],"tags":[4200,2497,5358,4142,7667,4052,5292,4341,4169,2237,4067,1039,4282,4944,2670,156,6861,153,4034,7666],"class_list":["post-60118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-centennial-valley","category-montana","category-swainson-hawks","tag-buteo-swainsoni","tag-buteos","tag-changing-light","tag-close-up","tag-eye-on-the-sky","tag-flight","tag-gravel-road","tag-hatch-year-bird","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-montana","tag-immature","tag-iso","tag-lift-off","tag-lifting-off","tag-light-morph","tag-low-light-2","tag-pose","tag-raptors","tag-swainsons-hawk","tag-variable"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/swainsons-hawk-immature-flight-road-mia-mcpherson-4569.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-fDE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7286,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/01\/27\/immature-red-tailed-rough-legged-ferruginous-and-swainsons-hawks\/","url_meta":{"origin":60118,"position":0},"title":"Immature Red-tailed, Rough-legged, Ferruginous and Swainson’s Hawks","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I thought I would post images of the juvenile Buteos that I see most often in Utah and Montana, they are Red-tailed, Rough-legged, Ferruginous and Swainson's Hawks.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-tailed Hawk juvenile and an intense stare, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5148.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5148.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15902,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/09\/22\/bird-photography-isnt-easy-but-it-does-have-its-rewards\/","url_meta":{"origin":60118,"position":1},"title":"Bird Photography Isn’t Easy But It Does Have Its Rewards","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Being a bird photographer has its rewards beyond the most obvious which for me is being out in nature or better yet being a part of it. It means with patience and plenty of time in the field I do get it right.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Portrait of a Swainson's Hawk light morph juvenile","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/swainsons-hawk-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3666.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/swainsons-hawk-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3666.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/swainsons-hawk-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3666.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":105569,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/08\/29\/dark-morph-swainsons-hawk-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":60118,"position":2},"title":"Dark Morph Swainson’s Hawk Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Early yesterday morning on my way to the auto tour route at Bear River MBR I was delighted to see and photograph not just one dark morph Swainson's Hawk but two.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult dark morph Swainson's Hawk in lift off pose, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/swainsons-hawk-adult-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-8199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/swainsons-hawk-adult-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-8199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/swainsons-hawk-adult-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-8199.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/swainsons-hawk-adult-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-8199.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":60021,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/09\/06\/immature-swainsons-hawk-golden-light-and-common-sunflowers\/","url_meta":{"origin":60118,"position":3},"title":"Immature Swainson’s Hawk, Golden Light And Common Sunflowers","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Two days ago I was able to photograph an immature Swainson's Hawk in golden light perched on a fence post that was surrounded by bright yellow common sunflowers. Yes, I was blissed out.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling immature Swainson's Hawk and wild sunflowers, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/swainsons-hawk-immature-sunflowers-mia-mcpherson-9405.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/swainsons-hawk-immature-sunflowers-mia-mcpherson-9405.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/swainsons-hawk-immature-sunflowers-mia-mcpherson-9405.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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