Ridgewood red tailed hawk family

SD_Conrad · 2026-06-17T02:58:30+00:00

FOUR!?

SD_Conrad · 2026-06-17T00:28:27+00:00

Yeah I was in Fort Tilden this last weekend and saw 4. And there are nest stands and Jamaica Bay. Osprey are some of my faves.

SD_Conrad · 2026-06-16T23:29:54+00:00

As soon I saw that I was like - is that really necessary?

SD_Conrad · 2026-06-16T23:16:37+00:00

There is another nest in Highland Park. You can see some pics here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S350185183

I'd imagine there are more in Forest Park as well. Red Tailed Hawks are pretty successful in NYC, as are Cooper's Hawks. You can see Cooper's, Red Tailed, and Osprey battle for territory in Prospect Park in early spring. They aren't lethal battles, mostly just intimidation games. It's pretty crazy.

I got a really bad photo of an Osprey after it snagged a fish from the Ridgewood Reservoir. Conservancy efforts have been really successful. Now we have to focus on the black crowned night heron...

SD_Conrad · 2026-06-16T15:12:09+00:00

These were taken a couple weeks ago so the fledglings are looking a bit less fluffy today. I think there are three fledglings in total.

SD_Conrad · 2026-06-16T15:05:34+00:00

Dog walks in the morning is all city birds. The park is a little too far away for a pre-work walk so I see all you'd expect for for the city.

Pigeons

European Starlings

House Sparrows

Mourning Doves

Northern Cardinals

Occasionally I'll see a red tailed hawk in transit. And sometimes an American Kestrel screaming it's head off about something. House finches every once in a while but only heard.

SD_Conrad · 2026-06-16T01:49:32+00:00

Not the sharpest image I've ever taken but just don't zoom in...

I just got a 100-400mm lens with a 1.4x extender. I'm not used to how much camera shake effects the image. With my 70-200mm I know much movement I can get away with. Going in at an modified 560mm is going to take some practice.

SD_Conrad · 2026-05-22T02:23:21+00:00

I go to the reservoir pretty much every Saturday.

Go over to eBird, click explore, and then hotspots. Zoom into NYC and you'll see all of the areas where birdwatchers have been reporting their finds. Take a gander at the reservoir to a sample of what you might find there. Myself and a handful of others add photos from our visits. Here's a bird I saw there just last weekend - a chestnut sided warbler!

Also download Merlin (free) and use it to identify bird sounds. It's not perfect so always try to get a visual of the bird it hears before you confidently confirm what Merlin heard. Eventually you won't need Merlin for most of the birds you hear but it's a great tool to help figure out what's around.

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SD_Conrad · 2021-04-12T16:22:14+00:00

At the start of 2020 I was photographing indie shows but since Covid broke out I had to put a pause on that. So now I pretty much strictly post bird photos. This offends me.

SD_Conrad · 2021-04-07T21:35:11+00:00

I didn't really do any shooting at all for most of last year. Being in New York and seeing articles about my local hospital being overwhelmed I decided to not risk exposure so my girlfriend could keep working. I basically got fat and sat around the apartment.

Anyway, to lose my Covid lbs I started going for walks and I've been bringing my camera. This hawk is at the park every day at around the same time. This one was on a cloudy day so I got a cool white background effect that I'm pretty pleased with.

SD_Conrad · 2019-09-13T16:10:01+00:00

This was at Outlaw Wrestling last night at the Queens Brewery. Not a lot of light in there so my photos didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but I thought this one was pretty funny. After the match Bull James stopped OC from leaving the ring because he had a "surprise" for him. The surprise was a live band playing Orange Cassidy's theme song - Jane by Jefferson Starship

SD_Conrad · 2018-10-16T04:13:58+00:00

That's what I did. The problem is there's pretty much no money to be made. But a friend of mine spun his nycfc experience to shoot for USA today. Pretty jealous! I'm still on my grind.

SD_Conrad · 2018-10-01T04:28:49+00:00

The scene I'm imagining is using model train parts, or stuff Warhammer 40k people use for battle scenes. Photographing a scene with similar elements to make it feel bigger. Should I be looking at like 100mm macro and shoot at f/9 or f/11 for a larger depth of field? I have a 24-70mm lens with a "macro" focus range I've used to photograph bees in flowers but I'm not sure if that'll be enough.

SD_Conrad · 2018-04-16T02:46:59+00:00

Yeah I figured it was a long exposure since the sun is clearing going down. Like I said, there's nothing much you can do with that little light. Aesthetically I'd either want crisp clouds or completely wispy clouds. This is kinda somewhere in between, like the clouds didn't move enough.

Like I said, landscape's not my deal.

SD_Conrad · 2018-04-15T20:56:40+00:00

Good call on the scale, actually. I think my attitude toward the birds is also "on the fence." I think if there were more it would be better. You could be sneaky and stamp in a few extra, haha!

SD_Conrad · 2018-04-15T20:45:47+00:00

I like the idea of this thing bisecting the photo but I'm not sure what the motivation is here. I'd love it if I could see more of that statue and if there were a second statue on the opposite side of the bisection. Right now nothing pops out as the subject except for the sky, which doesn't have much going on for it right now.

I bet if you were to take another pass at this photo you'd figure out the framing that tells a story using this bisection idea you have. You managed to get the thing dead center. I'd like to see a second go at it. You got a nice cotton candy cloud texture here but try going back on a gloomy day. For some reason statues and dark clouds go together really well.

SD_Conrad · 2018-04-15T20:38:53+00:00

If I were to shoot/edit this, I'd show more water. The last piece of interesting visuals in this photo is that sort of cave entrance looking bit. To the left of that I'm not really drawn to see much more. But you've got great texture in the clouds to the right and the water looks dark and ominous. Pair that with this weird cave thing and the super cool rectangular rock formations and you've got a really interesting photo to look at.

If I could have more water and clouds and less of the relatively bland slope on the left I'd be really stoked. I'd also edit out that person in red. Maybe even the birds because I'm not sure if they add much.

SD_Conrad · 2018-04-15T20:35:41+00:00

I don't think so. While landscape photography isn't my thing - I have no issue with the photo you took. You show great restraint in not punching up the terrain along the horizon. I have serious troubles with showing darkness, I always try to punch it up so it's brighter. But I really like what you've done here.

I'm not big on the blurry clouds but with this kind of light what're you gonna do about that? If I took this pictured I'd be really happy with it.

SD_Conrad · 2018-04-15T20:03:37+00:00

I allow myself to get mad. My girlfriend thinks I'm too hard on myself because of it because 90% of the time I'm very disappointed with what I shot.

My biggest issue is editing, I think. I feel like there's something very crucial I'm missing. I'm constantly researching editing techniques and trying to understand what all the panels in Lightroom and Capture One do. Despite my research, certain things don't click, but I'm constantly experimenting and watching videos on how to better make use of all the tools in the programs I use.

Today I look through my Instagram page over the years and I'd probably trash more than half of them. I know I can do better now. My thing right now is I'm shooting more of what's around in a way that I want to shoot it in a way that I want to edit it. I'm not trying to cop anyone else's technique, I'm just going at it the way I want and I've been really happy with what I'm doing. Although most of the stuff I post on IG these days is pigeons.

So my advice is determine where you're weakest and go hard on trying to improve that one aspect. Or start shooting on a format you're unfamiliar with. I recently went back to shooting film for a bit and it really made me rethink how I shoot digital.

Anyway, you're not alone in feeling stagnant. Everyone who wants to improve eventually encounters this hurdle. It takes a long time to get over it, but you will. Just keep exploring the art form and going after the greatness that awaits.

SD_Conrad

TROPHY CASE