Hawk at the stadium

[Bandit]

I thought the wind on this hawk looked cool.

[Mad Aussie]

The wind on the feathers do look cool.

The first shot is a nice composition. I probably would have cropped in tighter on the tail though which would have left more active (negative) space in front of him to help us follow his stare.

Could be a bit more sharp, especially the eye.

Exposure looks nice too.

Good work.

[jjeling]

I believe thats a kestrel.

[Hillbillygirl]

Not a bad shot of a hard to capture species. This is actually a Coopers Hawk. They are usually quite wary, and fly just out of range of all but longest telephoto's. Shot itself could be a bit sharper and would look so much better on a more natural perch, (but we don't get to pick where they land)

[Bandit]

I seem to struggle with sharpness. Even if I'm shooting a fast shutter I don't seem to be able to capture the sharpness that I see in other photos. It's a consistent response I get. Maybe I'm too hard on the shutter. Any suggestions or is this just something that you get in time. I don't use a tripod or monopod although I have both.
Any suggestions?

[Mad Aussie]

I seem to struggle with sharpness. Even if I'm shooting a fast shutter I don't seem to be able to capture the sharpness that I see in other photos. It's a consistent response I get. Maybe I'm too hard on the shutter. Any suggestions or is this just something that you get in time. I don't use a tripod or monopod although I have both.
Any suggestions?

At 1/1200th and 200mm you should be able to get sharpness without a tri or monopod.
Probably just a frag of movement when you hit the button. Practice will sort that.
The really sharp photos you see from others these days are usually not as they took them. The photos have usually been sharpened via photoshop or whatever.

Attaching them here reduces sharpness also if the photos is over 250kb in size so often putting them in another online album is a better idea.