From the land of eternal backlight

[phillane]

Caught this immature eagle the other day. Shooting conditions could not be worse as I was proped against some ones fence, there was no better vantage point. The immature was situated on a branch almost spotting scope distance facing a sheer drop of 200 feet into Padilla Bay. All things considered I got a decent image

ISO 200 Canon 300 F2.8 @ F 5.6 +Canon 2x Ext manual exposure +1 stop

[Randy Stout]

Phil:
Very cute title. Sometimes, you just can't get the perfect set up, so you make the best of it.

The eye is light enough to add interest despite the backlight. Good head angle.

Exposure pretty good under these difficult conditions, with perhaps just a few blown whites on the lower breast.

I would def. clone out the little branch. Because it is at the same height as the birds eyes, and it looks like he is looking at it, rather than in the distance.

Cheers

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the eye contact and it is a great subject. Adding to Randy's comments, the bird looks relatively soft on my monitor and the sky has a magenta cast.

[phillane]

Gee Axel , you left me speech less :D