Tawny Eagle leaving perch.

[Austin Thomas]

Hi all,

Here is another from this years trip to Kenya, but this time birdlife.

This Tawny Eagle was sitting comfortably on top of its perch for quite some time. I managed to keep myself focussed on the subject for long periods of time, waiting for some movement or action to take place, before releasing the shutter. I remember panicking though, each time I had to blink or stretch, in fear that I would miss the action.

Finally it decided to move and this image was recorded. Personally, I wish that the head was angled ever so slightly more towards the camera.

More images from Kenya 2010 are available HERE (http://www.austin-thomas.co.uk/blog)

C&C most welcome.

Canon 1DMK4, 500mm +1.4x , f5.6, 1/1250 ISO800.

Cheers

Austin

[Richard Stern]

Hi Austin,

I agree about the head angle; also the head looks slightly out of focus, or has some movement artefact.The sharpest area seems to be on the near wing primaries. The take-off position with one foot still on the perch is terrific!

Richard

[Pieter de Waal]

What a majestic bird and well captured. It can get frustrating waiting for them to make a move, your patience was well rewarded. Nice and sharp image, appears a little dark in my monitor. Would love to see this as a bigger image at max posting size.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Austin I think this is an outstanding image, ok the head is perhaps not ideally positioned but the eye and bill are obviously clearly visible and look sharp enough to me. It is the light and the texture of the plumage along with the position of the bird that more than make up for the less than perfect head angle.

[Janet Heintz]

Austin
Beautiful image, captured a great moment in time. Nice job.
Looks sharp on my monitor.
Janet

[subramanya_ck]

Fantastic Timing. I love to see images of Birds in Flight. Your timing is perfect in this image.

BR,
Subbu

[Stu Bowie]

Austin, the waiting can be agonising, but you have timed this perfectly. Good show of the wingspan, and we cant always guarantee thrir direction of take off. Killer BG.

[Harshad Barve]

this is super shot , love the pose and BG here
TFS

[Rich Steel]

Hi Austin

Worth the wait with a nice bit of action. However, what I really want to know is who told you what species it was ;) What created the background?

Cheers

Rich

[Austin Thomas]

Thanks for your comments all.

@Rich.

Ref, ID. Well you know it wasn't straight out of my memory bank !

My method to ID this year was to ask the Guide in our vehicle immediately after taking a picture to name the subject. I then sent myself a 1 line email with the title. When I got home I was able to read the date/time of the picture, cross check the same time in my inbox and there was the answer !

Ref. BKGR. The tree/perch was in the base of a river and I was 30ft up on the bank, so I was almost at eye level with the bird. The BKGR would be the OOF trees / bushes or tress beyond the far river bank.

Cheers

Austin