Bald Eagle in flight

[John Ippolito]

<HR align=center width="100%" SIZE=1>

Photographed along Eagle River
I've been trying to get an image of an eagle exactly in this position with habitat, but I'm not sure this composition works at all.
all comments appreciated<O:p</O:p
D300
300 2.8 VR
f 3.5
1/4000
ISO 200
manual
spot meter<O:p</O:p

[Rene' Villela]

John... That is a really nice capture! I like the head angle and the spread wings! Please! Do something about the BG! I am sure the experts here could get rid of all the stuff! I really like the bird! Cheers!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very cool banking pose, details and light. I would crop a little bit off the left and too bad the BG is so busy. You could try to blur the BG more (2.0 pixels or so).

[Dave Green]

Magnificent! Maybe blur the bkg. I wonder if you had a version with the birch behind the bird--personal preference. In any event, I would be at the framing shop now

Dave Green

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely pose, feather detail and eye contact. BG is the only real issue. Interested in your use of spot metering - can you tell us what you spot metered from. Exposure looks good. Selecting the bright areas with colour range , copying to a layer and then changing blend mode to linear burn brings more detail into the tail and tones down the bright tree ( mask the effect off the head and neck). I would be tempted to extract the bird form this BG and drop it onto a cleaner one (with disclosure) if you're comfortable with that.

[denise ippolito]

John, Nice shot- love the details -beautiful wing span! Nice HA, maybe blur the BG -Congrats!! I know I'd be framing it if I took it

[John Ippolito]

Thanks Rene', Axel, Dave, Tony and Denise for your input and suggestions.
Tony, I like your rework with the linear burn on the tail and the birch tree. It does help make the tree ever so subdued compared to the OP. Beyond that I would have to get much better at extracting the eagle from this BG. My feeble attempts at such work look like I used an exacto knife with my left hand (I'm right handed).<O:p

With regard to the metering, I spot metered off a mature bald eagle's head (in the same light) + 1 1/3 EV. <O:p