Osprey landing

[John Whaley]

The landing pose of these birds is my favorite. I love the open wings and intense concentration. Taken about an hour before sunset on the eastern shore of Maryland. Tripod, gimbal, mm, 1/3200, f6.3, auto ISO - 720, +0.3ev, 500 f4E + 1.4III extender, D500. cc

[Randy Stout]

John:

Timing was perfect. Well exposed, soft background, well composed,

In a perfect world, the sun angle a bit more over your left shoulder to illuminate the underwings a bit more, but looking at the shadow of the stick on the trunk , the sun may have still been a bit high to make that work.

Well captured.

Cheers

Randy

[Mike Singh]

Waw very nice action John. Did you have to reduce to highlights to preserve to details in the white feathers?
Mike


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[Alex Becker]

Nice action and exposure John. I agree with Randy re: the light angle but I don't really mind that much as I really like the pose and head detail. Super minor thing but I might consider cloning out the small bit of branch that cuts cut off on the lower corner of the frame. Not a big deal but the rest of the perch in the frame is tidy enough that I notice it. TFS

[John Whaley]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I did lower the highlights on a couple of areas by about -5 with an adjustment brush in LR. They were not clipped but looked a bit too high to my eye. Agree about removing the lower branch. At this location I am always going to get shadows as there are trees behind me and the sun goes behind them before I get direct light.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Absolute cracker maybe adjust contrast a little in RAW file the brightest are a tad bright and darkest a tad dark to my eye.