Osprey with bunker

[John Whaley]

Taken about a 1/2 hour before sunset with Assateague Island in the background. You would laugh if you knew what I do to get eye level with these fish hawks in flight. 1/3200, f5, auto ISO 560, 500 f4 E, D500.

[Noel Heustis]

John - I like the placement of the subject in the frame...that fish doesn't look like he's having a good day. From your description...of course I've got to ask what you do to get eye level?

[Mike Poole]

Nicely framed with the wingspan and the expression on the unfortunate fish. Maybe try and tone down the highlights a little then come and spill the beans on the eye level access!

Mike

[Alex Becker]

Nice pose with a sweet BG and the fish is great. I also gotta ask how you get eye level with these guys! Great look at the eye. TFS

[John Whaley]

Nicely framed with the wingspan and the expression on the unfortunate fish. Maybe try and tone down the highlights a little then come and spill the beans on the eye level access!

Mike

Thanks guys. Toned the highlights down selectively here?
Growing up on a farm I have always observed that in general wildlife is not afraid of machinery and vehicles but is wary of humans, especially on foot. When I first tried to capture these Osprey in flight from the shoreline I found that:
1 - I was shooting at an up angle which I did not find appealing and I had nothing but a sky background again less than ideal.
2 - The Osprey were agitated by my presence even when I wore full camo, painted my face, used a lenscoat hide, ...
My solution was to drive my Kubota RTV, which is a glorified golf cart on steroids, out onto the shoreline and shoot out of the back of it without any camo at all. By shooting out of the bed of the cart I am elevated about 9'+ above ground level and the Osprey are much more accepting of my presence than without the vehicle. Actually they just ignore me now which I take as a compliment. The bed of the cart allows me to use my tripod and because I am mobile I can move to take advantage of the sun and wind conditions. Obviously one can't always drive out to your ideal location but I have successfully applied the same idea to shooting out of the back of my pickup, sometimes using my lenscoat hide when applicable. One other thing I should mention is that the fish is actually looking at where he is going. I have watched it too many times for it to be anything else. I look at different frames and the fishes eye moves as he goes through the air towards the nest. It could keep me up at night if I thought about it too much.

[Bob Smith]

You've captured great full flare of all the flight feathers here John---and I like the context of the stretch of shoreline in the BG.

[Isaac Grant]

Nice pose on the bird and the fish! These birds are really hard because of the amount of black and white on them. For this pose I wish the sun was right at your back so the bird was evenly lit. I would reduce the yellows in the whites on the bird.

[John Whaley]

Thank you for the feedback. Always appreciated.

Nice pose on the bird and the fish! These birds are really hard because of the amount of black and white on them. For this pose I wish the sun was right at your back so the bird was evenly lit. I would reduce the yellows in the whites on the bird.

Issac - I agree that the sun angle was not ideal and that there is still too much yellow in the whites. I did reduce both the yellows in the yellows and the yellows in the whites but when I was editing it I thought it started to look flat when I pushed it. I'll go back and give it another tweak. I find it gets tricky when you have that late afternoon yellow sun. It paints with a heavy brush.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The look on the fish's face is priceless. Good work getting a higher vantage point off your RTV, it has really paid off with an interesting BG.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Nice light, wonderful wing position and fish, lovely background. Very nice image. You have the same flat land on the eastern shore that I do in Florida, no mountains, no cliffs to use for backgrounds. Using your RTV worked well. Thank you for sharing, John.