Golden Eagle & Coyote

[jeffdjohnston]

Shot just north of Rawlings, WY in late November.
1DMK2 + 500IS + 1.4

Regards,

Jeff Johnston

[Tony Whitehead]

Amazing colours and eye contact. Would prefer a little more room and a bit more detail in the shadow areas but a strong image with the eye, bill and raised talon.

[Juan Aragonés]

The light is a bit strong to my taste and I think that the composition doesn´t work because the coyote is clipped and the eagle is a bit centered in the frame. If this is a crop I think that you can improve the composition adding more room at the left. I like the raised claw of the eagle a lot and the eye of the bird. By the way, did you use a bait for this image? Keep them coming

[jeffdjohnston]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for your input.

I discovered the bird about 3 hours after sunrise about 10 feet off the edge of a two-lane road. From all appearances, the coyote must have been hit by a vehicle sometime earlier in the day.

I shot from the drivers side window of my car facing the wrong direction on a 45 degree angle to the road.

This is a horizontal crop from a vertical image. I was rotating the camera to provide different looks. The bird just happened to reposition itself (hence the talons) while I was shooting in portrait mode. The crop was made at the bottom where the scrub grass started to cover the coyote - there was no more animal to be seen. In my judgement, to crop lower would have added more hubris to the image. I do agree it needs room on the left and may grow the canvas to do so at some time in the future.

Regards,

Jeff Johnston

[Juan Aragonés]

Jeff thank you very much for the aditional and detailed information. Much appreciated :)

[Stu Bowie]

I like the intensity in the eye, together with the raized talon. You have explained the reason of half a coyote, so well done on what you have.

[Dean Fleischman]

Even if there was no more Coyote to be seen because of the grasses, I bet a lower crop would still add to this wonderful image by providing "virtual" Coyote, almost the way you might add room at the bottom for "virtual" legs when a bird's legs disappear into grass or water.

[Nagesh Mula]

This is a killer. I liked the intensity in the birds eye. In my opinion this picture would be better if you can include the coyote's face.