Long Crested Eagle
Okavango Delta, Botswana.
July 2013.
This wild long-crested eagle was photographed handheld from a boat gliding through the beautiful Okavango Delta in Botswana. On my 12 trips to Africa over the years, I have only seen this species on 3 different occasions, with this being by far the best sighting. I have several images of this stunning bird both perched and in flight (including a wing spread), but I like this bird’s focused posture in this image. Of course, I always prefer birds against a colorful background, as opposed to simple blue sky, but we cannot always get the birds to do what we want. Wild, not baited, no compositional elements changed.
Equipment:
Canon 5D Mark 3 camera.
Canon 500 f4 Mark II lens.
F5.6, 1/2500, ISO 250.
manual mode, evaluative metering.
spot focus.
handheld from a boat.
Post processing:
Lightroom 5.6: basic global adjustments, crop, etc.
Nik Viveza: a few very minor targeted adjustments.
Photoshop CS6: additional targeted adjustments, selective color enhancement, resized and sharpened using Hougaard Malan’s actions.
edited on a color calibrated NEC P241W monitor.
Nice look at this awesome raptor in flight. I like the different wing position and how it highlights the focused head. Love the good look at the extended legs showing the feathered tarsus. Sharp and well exposed. Well done.
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Hi Mark, I like the concentrated stare ahead, and although the wings are not in a full down stroke, I do like the show of the primaries as captured. Well exposed, sharp, and agree moving him up in the frame wont harm the image. Im fine with the sky BG.