Bald Eagle Feeding on a Mallard

[Raymond Lee]

138958

Gold Bar Park, Edmonton, AB, Canada.

Canon EOS 7D | Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS + Kenko 1.4x Teleplus PRO 300 DGX + Canon Extender EF 1.4x II.
Manual mode, 1/1250 sec., f/7.1, ISO 400, handheld.

Continuing from the post here (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/118247-Bald-Eagle-and-its-Trophy). I sat at the edge of the river bank, about 10-20 ft high, while this Bald Eagle teared apart and fed on the mallard. It took about 30 minutes to finish 80% of the mallard carcass. This Eagle flew off afterward, and the second Eagle picked up the leftovers right away.

For post-processing:

Minor cropping to compose for the Eagle and the feathers on the ice
Slightly darkened up the beak because it was bright.
Used a Hue/Saturation layer on the red flesh as it tend to be hot


All C&Cs are welcome!

Thanks,
Raymond

[AdityaPadhye]

Powerful image, the bloody entrails, discarded feathers really adds a lot to it. Wish the HA was a bit better
BTW, any reason why you used two 1.4x TC's over one single 2x TC?

[Daniel Cadieux]

Super behavioural image here with the eagle tearing into the dead duck and feathers littering the scene. Your heart must have been pounding hard! Good techs and processing. I missed your other post, thanks for linking to it...quite a sight!

[Marina Scarr]

Killer action/behavior image. Talk about a story here! IT doesn't get much better than this. I just wish you had taken 2 steps to the right if you could and dropped down just a little lower to show more of the bird's eye and a slightly better angle. Either way, this is terrific and I can imagine how loudly you could hear your own heart beating.

[Eric Dienesch]

Great Capture.
I would be happy to see only such a szene and you take a brilliant picture of it.

Greetings Eric

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent action shot, Raymond. IQ is excellent.

[Grace Scalzo]

You sure captured the action. A slight modification of your shooting angle could have improved a few aspects of this image a bit. Everyone has to eat, and this is what rapors do, but for me, it's just too graphic to enjoy. (But I'm not taking anything away from your image, just personal preference)