Osprey Landing on Nest

[Phil Ertel]

This image was captured on at 3:37PM on April 15, 2009 at Jordan Lake in North Carolina. It was cloudy with an occasional light shower. I was behind a couple of small pines trees under my Kwik-Camo Throw Blind and the bird didn't pay much attention to me. After landing on the nest she would continuously scan the area spending 2-4 sec looking in different directions covering an arc of approximately 270 deg. She spent no more time looking in my direction than any other. I left the area after she flew off the nest in response to a Red Shoulder Hawk flying by.

I kept the nest in as I think it helps provide a reference to an obvious landing pose and balances the image. I know the head merges with the body but am interested in hearing if folks think this works with the bird looking directly at he viewer.

I converted the RAW file in ACR. In ACR I cropped some off the bottom (11%) and off both sides (37%; total). The crop on the bottom was to exclude the bit of the made-made platform that was visible. The side cropping just eliminated white sky. Once the image was imported into CS3. I ran shadow/Highlights, adjusted slightly with levels, and ran noise reduction using the Topaz DeNoiser plugin. I resized / sharpened and posted.

Thanks for reviewing and special thanks for any comments/critiques.

Regards,

Phil


Image Specifications:
Camera: Canon 50D
Setting:
Manual Mode
f-Stop: 6.3
Shutter speed: 1/1250
ISO: 800
Lens: 500mm IS USM f4.0
Tripod: Gitzo GT3540LS with Mongoose 3.5; 4th generation
Flash: not used

[David Roach]

It works!!!! Love the high key, the nest as base and target and those eyes!!!! The feather detail is amazing!!!!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I think it works well, there is enough contrast to see the details in the head/bill area. That wingspread is fantastic as is the landing pose. Well worth your efforts. Congratulations! :)

[Fabs Forns]

Terrific angelica wing position, with plenty of detail. Ospreys lend themselves for great high key because they have so much contrast in their plumage and eyes. I think you could add some red to the neutrals in selective color. Well done :)

[Stu Bowie]

Your comp works perfectly Phil, as the nest balances the image nicely. Superb wingspread, and well exposed too. You could think of maybe selecting the BG and running a small dose of a blue filter over it, or just darkening slightly. Just a thought.