NO! We're not ready!

And neither am I! I wasn't going to post this image but I decided to because I want to know what I should have done to make it better. I really like the idea but the execution falls way short in my eyes.

Here's a brief background. We went to Sandy Hook (NJ) this morning and while there had an opportunity to check out three Osprey nests each with juveniles who were giving mom and dad plenty of problems. The moms and dads were doing everything short of pushing the young out of the nests to try to entice them to fly. And in each case the juvies steadfastly refused, sitting there and crying. One nest had a single juvie while a second had two and this one had three young sitting there looking helpless as mom would fly back and forth.

This image was made in late morning under some harsh sun on what was/is a very hot and humid day here.

I used a Canon 30D with a 400mm f/5.6L lens. The rig was tripod-mounted.

1/500 sec at f/8; ISO 100; +2/3 EV; image was cropped fairly heavily.

Other than better light and longer lens, what could I have done to make this better?

HI Ed,

The first improvement I would do is to try to photograph them earlier when the light is not as harsh. I like the pose and head angle for all of them. I would also add a little more room all around.

Keep them coming!

Ed
I think the main problem with this image is the light....it's harsh and in the wrong direction. I'm not sure about how far away you were.......given a heavy crop....perhaps too far away for flash with a Better Beamer but that's the only thing that might have helped. You have a lot of sharpening halos that are easy to prevent in the finished image by selecting/sharpening just the birds.

Great potential for a visit with better light. Remember, this is all about the light :)

I like to see the color of the eyes better so I can tell if it is juvenille or parent