Osprey on the way home....

[Diane Miller]

... from the building supply store. This guy is getting ambitious. He had his tongue sticking out the whole sequence -- panting with exertion? The nest has grown a lot in the last 3-4 days -- hope to get back soon.

I'm not loving the near wing but other shots didn't show the stick this well. Canon 7D2, 100-100 II, 400mm, ISO 800, 1/3200 sec, f/5.6. This is just out of LR -- didn't feel the need to any PS work on it. Cropped to 30% of original frame.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice action shot, Diane. The nesting material could even make a good looking perch.

[christopher galeski]

nice image Diane,like the pose,maybe sharpen the eye a tad.TFS

[Randy Stout]

Diane:

Great building material, lots of interest. Comp works well, tongue out a plus.

Nice that head is clear of wing merge.

I might try to raise the shadows just a touch more.

Cheers

Randy

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely image Dianne. That's a big stick it is carrying. Thank you for sharing.

[Marina Scarr]

The size of this perch in relation to the bird is priceless. Super frame; however, I believe the head needs more sharpening.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Diane funny looking image , have you cloned out the tree , where the perch was attached to ?

With a little more sharpening i think the image would win .

TFS Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot I like the colours and exposure, nice and even lighting too. I would certainly apply a little sharpening to the osprey.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks everyone! Yeah, the rest of that tree was a huge hassle to get rid of!

The IQ here wasn't the greatest -- 30% of the frame of a 7D2 at ISO 800 is pushing it, even with good exposure. The sweet spot of detail and noise wasn't very sweet, and there may have been some atmospheric issues here. I had tried a Smart Sharpen on the JPEG before posting but it didn't do much but bring out artifacts. But I went back and re-processed and was able to do a better job with the NR and sharpening settings in LR/ACR. Then I went into PS for more of the same and some local dodging and burning.

Thanks for the push!