Tucson, AZ Jan 10, 2012 —I love seeing raptors. I don’t get to photograph them often enough, but Tucson and Southern Arizona is the place to go if you want to. It might be because they like the warmth of the desert. It might be because they love our mice, or the reptiles, or the migrating birds of the area. It might be because they know if you find water, you will find game. Whatever the reason, we have a wide selection of raptors in Tucson itself, if you are willing to travel one day’s drive then the world totally opens up.
I would suggest you bring your best glass. A telephoto lens can make a huge difference. If you don’t have such a critter, they are available to rent online, and in Phoenix.
Calendar for Tucson Area Photographers
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I imported and tagged the photo with Photo Mechanic. I used Adobe Lightroom for adding color profiles, basic adjustments, and exporting jpgs/tiffs from the raw to simulate HDR. I used Photomatix to tone-map the five images into an HDR image. I spruced-up the image using the Topaz plug-ins: Denoise, Detail, and Adjust, then touched-up the image using Adobe Photoshop.
PENTAX K-5
Sigma 300mm ƒ2.8 EX DF IF HSM APO
ISO 800, ƒ6.3, 1/125
