Osprey Express

[Desmond Chan]

D300 200-400+1.4TC = 550 on tripod. Manual exposure mode, all natural light. ISO 400 f6.3 1/500s.

Adjusted shadows and highlights. Cropped and added canvas for composition purpose.

C&C welcome and appreciated !!

Thank you !!

[Stu Bowie]

I like the posture in this, upturned wings, with extended legs. This is sharp where it counts, and love his building material clamped in his talons. I would maybe add to the top and right.

[Randy Stout]

Desmond:

I really like the merge of the two wings in this case, somehow it looks almost angelic (if you ignore the talons)

The image works the diagonal axis beautifully, and although I understand Stuarts point about more space, I think it works as posted because of the diagonal orientation and sense of movement in that direction.

I would consider one more round of USM on the head and brighten the eye just a bit.

Great sense of action here.

Thanks for sharing.!

Randy

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful action and timing in this capture with excellent exposure and detail. Great eye contact and sense of motion. Congratulations Desmond.

[Brutus Ostling]

Nothing else to say: it's a great shot. 1/500 sec, maybe you could have dared with 1/400 sec. to get more blur. (But, I know, then too much may have been blurred instead.)

[Juan Aragonés]

Very good advise by Randy. I like the pose a lot and the twig on the taloons and I would add another round of noise reduction to the BG.

[Mark Fuge]

I like the image. Nice capture.

I do agree with Stuart, that it needs more room. I would suggest that youi try to expand the top, right and bottom. I have attached a rough example. I put a diagonal from the upper left corner through the bird to the lower right corner to expand the borders.

The background adjustment was quick and dirty, but you get the point.

Otherwise, nice image.

[Fabs Forns]

I like the pose very much but feel the space for him to fly into is too short and he's going to hit his head against the frame :)
I added about an inch to the right. Adding at the bottom unbalances the crop IMO.

[Desmond Chan]

Thanks, folks, for the comments, suggestions and reposts !

I, too, am for more room on the right rather than the bottom. That's why I added a bit more canvas to the right then to the bottom. Apparently, it could still use a bit more :)

[Arthur Morris]

Fabs' reposted COMP is perfect. Mark, thanks for your efforts but you need to be more careful with your cloning.... You grabbed parts of the bird and also left a seam.

Desmond: great pose and a good job of reducing the contrast.