Juvenile Bald Eagle

[John Blumenkamp]

This image was created a few weeks back here in northern Utah... to me the younger bald eagles are as interesting, if not more so, than the adults. Cool birds regardless of their age. :cool:

40D w/ 400 5.6L
1/2000 f/6.3 iso400
handheld

Thanks for looking,
John

[Sue Thomson]

Oh WOW!

Someday I'll have a bigger, faster lens and maybe I can take pics like this, too!

Cheers,
Sue

[Kobus Tollig]

Great exposure comp and detail. Line in bg going through the eagle a bit distracting imo. Great shot well done

[Duane Noblick]

I'm new to the site, new to photography (for the most part) and I feel I'm not at 'that level' yet to offer a worthy critique but I do want to say that I like the sharpness and the slight hint of wing blur at the tips giving the Eagle a sense of motion. The blurred grass going through the Eagle doesn't bother me and I do like the mountains as a back drop. I also like the light in this image...showing detail on the underside of the wings..something hard to do.

As far as composition..I wish there was more room to the bottom and left of the image giving the eagle something to fly into...if this is full framed then disregard the compostion...rules are meant to be broken.

Duane

[Randy Stout]

John:

I like this guy. Nice colors, good wing position, intense look. My first thought was that the horizon line was a bother as Kobus mentioned, but if it had to be there, I think its positioning is good, with the top line of tail and left wing, seems almost a natural divider. The mountains and grassland add a lot to the 'habitat' value for me.

Duane, good observations. John was pretty close to the sun angle, just a bit ove his right shoulder, so good underwing lighting, minimal shadows. Yes, a little more room to the left would be nice, but the framing on the diagonal does help in that regard,

John. The head does seem just a little soft to me, and gets lost a bit against the body. Perhaps some selective USM would help it seperate, and a little selective saturation boost to bring up the beak a bit, also helping it seperate.

Thanks!

Randy

[Doug Brown]

Hi John! How are things up north? I like the pose, but I do wish the head stood out more; it tends to get lost in the wing. I'm a little distracted by the horizon line running through the bird, but I do like the inclusion of habitat. Do you have another frame where the bird is either above or below the line?