Osprey with fish

[Michael Huggan]

My first posting. I recently spent a few days with Jim Neiger on his boat at Lake Blue Cypress photographing Ospreys. Jim advertises this workshop as 'Osprey Heaven' ...he's not wrong. I traveled from England, UK to attend this workshop and it was worth it. I have posted one of my favorite images which is a bit different from most of the ones I have with the Osprey against a blue sky background. However, tracking the Osprey with a wooded background was challenging, for me and the camera. At 9 frames per second the focus would lock on and off through the burst resulting in many images not sharp, or completely obscure - all apart from this one.

Jim practices the 500 mm lens hand held and in manual exposure mode -a challenge. The third and fourth day I could see an improvement in my images and became selective in what I photographed.

This is a workshop you must go on.

Nikon D3, Nikkor 500mm AFS II, 1250th of a sec @F7.1 ISO 400, Matrix metering, manual exposure setting, RAW image.

I will post a few more images over the next few weeks.

I trust you like the image.
Michael Huggan

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Mike:

What an awesome first post, and I am so happy to see you posting and to be the first to respond. I very much like how you have positioned this osprey in the frame. THe colors are great, exposure looks good and it is extremelely sharp. Like the movement in the wings and the fish is a huge plus. If the original capture offers more room on the left, it may be nice to see with a little more room on that side.

So glad that you enjoyed and learned so much from Jim's workshop.

It was a pleasure spending time with you and Julia, and I look forward to your next post AND your next visit!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN, Michael! Great first post. I like the takeoff pose, details and setting. You could run NR on the BG. It looks as if the nictitating membrane partially covers the eye. Do you have another image in this series that also shows the underside of the near wing? Thanks for sharing and keep them coming!

[Tony Whitehead]

Welcome, Michael. Very nice pose. Image looks noisy for a D3 at ISO400. I suspect that this is a sharpening issue as the sharpening on the bird looks fairly aggressive with some obvious halos especially around the head/bill/legs. Backing this off a little and masking the sharpening from teh BG may improve the image for web presentation. Sounds like some great photo opportunities in the workshop. Looking forward to mor of your images.

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Michael, great to have you in BPN, I can;t believe the amount of noise for ISO 400, you must have done something in the post processing did you lift the exposure? I never run noise reduction on the D3 even at ISO 800.

Very nice pose in the wings I'd back up in the sharpening for the perch.

Looking forward to more.

[Stu Bowie]

Welcome to BPN Michael. Superb timing for the take off, and love the forward extended wings. Good detail and exposure, and some NR on the BG would work.

[Steve Canuel]

Welcome. I like the pose and the lines of the wings and the perch. Nice colorful BG as well.

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent timing and great pose detail is pretty good so is separation from BG. I agree with Fabs on noise, seems too much for ISO 400, which sw did you use for processing this? Also on having difficulty tracking the bird, what settings did you have for AF? There are a few things you can adjust...

[Maxis Gamez]

Hello Michael,

Welcome to BPN, nice having you aboard. I'm glad you had a good time with Jim, I didn't get a chance to talk to you much but I hope to stay in touch.

I agree about the noise which can be easily removed. Striking pose, looks a little over sharpened but you did well keeping the Osprey sharp in the frame.

Don't forget to say hi for your next visit!