Vanquished at twilight...

[David Roach]

EOS R6 rf 100-500 @451 f8 1/1600 ISO12800 HH, Manual EXP, cropped from horizontal (FF from top to bottom)

Sun had just set and was leaving the wetland when two males started a tussle over potential nest location (at least that's what I presume). I raised the rig with no time for EXP adjustment (luckily was just imaging a pair as the sun dropped - so close to alright for this situation) just as the loser was flying off and towards me. This is about the 4th frame in sequence with auto eye enabled. At f8 and further away the first few frames were way too busy with the pond apple stand closer to the bird. The couple of frames after this the bird was too close for the AF to track properly.Tried to handle all NR with sliders in DPP but added one round of neat image to the BG only. The powerful takeoff left feather down everywhere which was left in as part of the story.

Thanks always for help and learnings on previous posts.

[Randy Stout]

David:

Very dramatic frame. Impressive that your camera and you were able to achieve focus as accurately as it did with the poor light and head one angle.

I might consider just a touch of additional , selective sharpening to the head/eyes to help them pop even a bit more. Perhaps tone down the two brightest light areas just to the right of the tail. The others aren't too distracting because your eye is drawn to the head of the bird so strongly, and tends to ignore them.

Kudos for taking the shot. Wayne Gretzky would be proud of you.

Randy

[Paul Burdett]

Ditto the positives from Randy. The eyes/head look plenty sharp to me on my monitor. A dramatic shot for sure. Hope 2022 is a good one for you and yours.

[David Roach]

Ditto the positives from Randy. The eyes/head look plenty sharp to me on my monitor. A dramatic shot for sure. Hope 2022 is a good one for you and yours.

Here's hoping the same for you, my friend Thanks as always for the vaued help.

[David Roach]

David:

Very dramatic frame. Impressive that your camera and you were able to achieve focus as accurately as it did with the poor light and head one angle.

I might consider just a touch of additional , selective sharpening to the head/eyes to help them pop even a bit more. Perhaps tone down the two brightest light areas just to the right of the tail. The others aren't too distracting because your eye is drawn to the head of the bird so strongly, and tends to ignore them.

Kudos for taking the shot. Wayne Gretzky would be proud of you.

Randy

Would that I had even a fraction of The Great One's preparation and skills, be taking shots all the time and the AF was all the rig's doing. Doesn't work all the time, but most of the time it's a game changer. Thanks as always for the valued help.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi David, I agree with Randy regarding the image being quite dramatic and maybe a little more sharpening on the head and eyes. When situations like this happen reflexes take over and hoping the the camera does it work. Thank you for sharing.

[Arthur Morris]

I love the image. Super-sharp on the eye and face. Amazing high ISO performance. It proves the old adage: shoot first and ask questions later. I did hate the clipped feet. I went for a somewhat boxy crop , eliminated on bit specular highlight, and toned down several more of the brightest ones.

with love, artie

[Kurt Bowman]

That's impressive at ISO 12800! I also like the pose here and excellent job of getting the head and eyes sharp!

[John Mack]

Nice and sharp where is needs to be. I like the framing. I would crop in tighter. Great background with all those specular highlights.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Two things here: First, as a Canadian and a die-hard Edmonton Oilers fan during their 80's hey-day, I approve of the Gretzky comments.

Second, thank you Artie for taking care of the clipped feet as that was my main gripe with the image. I like pretty much everything else about it. Quite "in your face" in a very good way.