Osprey in Flight

[Loi Nguyen]

I took this picture at Huntington Beach State Park, SC last November. I love the osprey down wing contrast against the green background. The osprey is actaully carrying a fish, but not so easy to see in this pose. I'm a newbie to this hobby and appreciate your comments!

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X II
1/2500
f5.6
ISO 1000
+2 EV Evaluative Metering

This is a crop picture and re-sized

Thanks

Loi

[John Chardine]

Nice Loi. "I love the osprey down wing contrast against the green background." - me too! I also like the water droplets trailing off the back. A little tighter crop may be better but I think you are already struggling with image quality with this crop so I wouldn't take it any further. Don't get me wrong, the bird is sharp, but there's just something about the look around the head that suggests a significant crop. Apologies if I am on the wrong track here.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi John

You are absolutely correct that it is a crop. I took off about 1/3 on each side. I have tried various crop, here is a slightly tighter crop as you suggested which des show the wter trail a little more. This is about as tight as I would want to go, since I also want to preseve a litle bit of the sky on top to show perspective.

Thank you.

Loi

[Colin Gilyeat]

Loi, very nice and I think I like the repost better than the original. Too bad the fish isn't visible a lttle more.

Colin

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Loi, I'm a newbie too...Love raptors.... You did a great job.... was this a single shot? The water droplets led me to this fish's tail... which is good! About another split second, you may have gotten the wing(s) in an "up" position so the fish would have been more visible. (of course, then, the bird's head may have been somewhat "blocked"). I like the bit of sky in the background... it does provide perspective to the image. From the eye-catch, looks like the sun was pretty high? This image has a lovely "natural" look to it. Congrats!

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Loi, I'm a newbie too...Love raptors.... You did a great job.... was this a single shot? The water droplets led me to this fish's tail... which is good! About another split second, you may have gotten the wing(s) in an "up" position so the fish would have been more visible. (of course, then, the bird's head may have been somewhat "blocked"). I like the bit of sky in the background... it does provide perspective to the image. From the eye-catch, looks like the sun was pretty high? This image has a lovely "natural" look to it. Congrats!

Sandy, thank you for your comments. I actually had the shots with the wing up and the fish was clearly visible, but the underside of the bird was mostly white and lack the beauty of the color of the upper side. He was also gaining altitude quickly so in the next few frames, he was above the tree line, so the visual contrast was not as striking. I will be back to this location for sure and hopefully the weather will cooperate. We had only about 2 hours of good light that weekend and most of the fishing was a bit far from the viewing platform where the light was at the right angle.

[Marina Scarr]

Repost works well here. Nice to see water trail and fish tail.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Very nice and I too like the repost better. Nice job!

[Faraaz Abdool]

Lovely photo, Loi. You made the right choice here with the wing detail against the green. I absolutely love the trailing water droplets and the fish tail. The only thing that bugs me about this image is the harsh shadow made by the wing. Understandably hard to avoid when shooting with the sun at such a high inclination. Maybe a slight turn of the head towards you could've helped also. Still a great shot!