Dan Kearl inspired me to go out and try for Osprey with his many flying bird shots. This is a female, dad had just dropped off a fish for her and the two kids (I missed that shot). She then took the fish for a fly about and then came back to the nest. The fish still has a head and I'm not sure why dad did not eat it before dropping it off, maybe he does not like catfish.
The light is a little more harsh than I would like and I would like to lessen the shadow but do not know how to do that - any suggestions appreciated.
I did desaturate and lighten the background a little and cropped about 30%.
Nikon D3S, 500mm plus 1.4 converter for 700mm
ISO 800, f8, 1/800 sec
Manual Exposure
Laurie - very well done on your first attempt for osprey in flight. The fish really adds to it. You can try selective dodging of the shadows or a levels adjustment moving the midtone slider to the left on a layer mask. I'm sure others can give better suggestions.
Nice, Laurie, is this at Sauvie?
Bird is nice and sharp at 1/800.
Interesting that the head was still on, I have hardly ever seen a head after about 30 seconds after capture.
Hi Laurie. Nice action and good eye contact. I find that when photographing Osprey, it's time to pack up the gear when the light gets the least bit strong. The shadows are impossible to fix. A wings-up frame may help the situation though. I probably would have shot f/5.6 or f/6.3 to soften up the BG a little. I'm not sure about desaturating the BG; it doesn't look quite right to me.
Hi Laurie,
Lovely shot and very unusual to still see the head on the fish.
I would try dodging the shadow area at ~ 18% strength.
I would also do a gaussian blur on the BG at 2 pixels or so and that way you wouldn't have to desaturate the Bg so much.
Good placement of the bird in the frame.
Gail
Doug - agree we should have left but the guy 10' on my left got this one just right. I have better photos of her but the angle on the fish is not as good. They fly so seldom!
Gail and Karl - I will give it another try, thanks for the suggestions.