Capturing a raptor in flight requires skill, the right equipment, and a bit of luck. I can’t use a heavy top of the line camera body because of weight issues, so I always must sacrifice a bit of focusing and burst shooting speed. In other words, I must always deal with some shutter lag, which can be a problem when it comes to stopping fast action. My lightweight camera, however, can stop key action moments if I am able to anticipate the moment, and begin shooting an instant before the moment I am trying to freeze. In this case, I began setting the focus and exposure on this hawk by pressing my shutter button half way down while it was still in its nest. After the focus and exposure was set, I pressed the shutter button all the way down to shoot, but this hawk was already leaving the nest. By the time my camera was able to record its first image, the bird was already in flight. I had my camera set on “burst” mode, and used a very fast shutter speed of 1/1600th of a second. The first image of burst was an awkward composition, with the bird and tree branches merging into a confusing mess. This image was the second shot in my multiple image burst – and it produced exactly what I wanted to capture. I was able to suspend the hawk in flight, frozen in time with wings upright, just inches from the outstretched branches of the tree, yet with part of the nest still in the frame.