Female Bald Eagle, Lake Hemet

[Loi Nguyen]

Went up to Lake Hemet, California to check on a breeding pair of Eagles. Happy to say that they have 2 healthy chicks, about 5 weeks old. The nest is on the South side of the lake and closed off. Access is by boat only.

1DX
500f4 II + 2X III
1/1600
f10
ISO-1000
Evaluative Metering off the blue sky, + 1EV
Manual Mode
Handheld from a boat
Cropped to about 6M pixels

Appreciate your comments.

Thank you

Loi

[Diane Miller]

Great pose -- I'd love to get that close to one. But the saturation looks very low to me, and I'd get rid of the vertical pole on the right. It could even be cropped out, although that might make things feel a little crowded on the right. But even without the pole, I don't think there is any need for so much space on the right.

Have you tried to recover a little more detail in the highlights? With that lens and camera, I'd expect a studio shot!! : >)

[Troy Lim]

Going wide, nice. Agree with the vertical pole is distracting. Space is just right as is, the whites has details.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you Diane and Troy. This is a fairly large crop, 33% of the original, so IQ suffers a little. The white isn't ad in the high resolution, but at this 1024x800, I'm not happy with it either. The pole is actually an OOF tree, which is part of the environment. I could clone it out, but decided to leave it as is. I have tried to convert the RAW file from DPP using Artie's instruction vs. the default sharpening. May be just need to start all over and see what I did wrong.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Nice Capture Loi, I like it the way it is!

[Doug West]

I agree with the others. That out of focus tree is pretty distracting. I'd clone it out in a heartbeat.

Doug

[vishaljadhav]

Nice composition Loi, i think removing the right pole it may look far nicer to my eye

[jack williamson]

Looks pretty good for the light, good advice by the others. Well done for HH in a boat

[hirandesilva]

Skillfully photographed HH from a Boat. I do agree in cloning the Post.

[Michael Todd]

Very good HH shot from a boat with this equipment. There has to be some weight there. I agree that the pole needs to be cloned out. A shot from a little further right would have been good to. Very well done!