Golden Eagle with Fox

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi,

With the dull weather, a chance to review some images from earlier in the year - thought I would post this - mainly looking for feedback on the processing...

Image was taken in Norway in late January. This male Golden Eagle was baited with the fox and stopped by briefly for a snack just as the light was starting to fade - of course. Not a lot of snow and the background was fairly mixed. Image is a good 90% of full frame.

Canon EOS 1D MkIV, EF 500 f/4 IS with 1.4 extender @ 700mm
1/500 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1600

Converted in DPP3, taken in to PS5 to alter the luminosity of the background and bring out more detail on the bird. NR on background with Dfine. Wondering if it needs a touch of NR on the bird as well.

Looking forward to your comments and feedback.

Thanks for looking, Gerald

[Dumay de Boulle]

WOW!!!! This is an amazing sighting...And not a bad photograph either. Great head turn and nice details. Incredible sighting!

[Randy Stout]

Gerald:

Rich, vibrant colors, nice head turn, slight upward shooting angle gives sense of dominance of the bird in the frame.

I would always trade a bit of noise to maintain details, and don't find this objectionable at all at this side.

Was the fox road kill? Such beautiful animals, shame it came to this.

Well done.

Cheers

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

what a dramatic frame Gerald. love the pose light and details. I wish there was more room below the fox and that we could see his head better.

processing is perfect

well done

[Gerald Kelberg]

Thanks very much for your feedback - much appreciated.

Yes, Dumay, it was great to see these fantastic birds and I tried to do it justice.

Randy, the fox had been shot by a local farmer, which was very unfortunate for the fox. So there is an ethical dilemma here. It is not that long since Golden Eagles were also persecuted and their populations were threatened. So, I square the dilemma by thinking that if helping an Eagle by killing and serving him his natural prey is going to help re-build the populations of Golden Eagles - it is not a bad thing.

Thanks Arash, I appreciate the help you have given through your guides.

Regards,

Gerald

[mohammad reza shahab]

I like the pose,details and shooting angle.

[gail bisson]

Very powerful image.
I would love it if you had more room on the bottom to include the entire fox's head.
I do see a bit of noise in the bottom feathers and would see how well you can do removing the noise but still retaining detail. Not a deal breaker though.
Gail

[Richard Flack]

Super image with an awesome scene captured. Agree with Arash's comments. TFS

[Marina Scarr]

Super image although I agree on some more space below if you have it.

[Dvir Barkay]

Very cool, how do they get the foxes? It is a bit tight, and it needs a bit of denoising on the body as its clearly evident, love the eyes tho

[Gerald Kelberg]

Many thanks for all the comments and feedback.

Attached repost is with a slightly different crop to allow more room for the fox at the bottom. Plus I have brushed on some Dfine NR in some of the darker feathers to minimise the noise in those areas. Thanks and I hope you like the result.

Gerald

[Dvir Barkay]

There that is much better, now you can't see any noise and it looks really good.