Osprey Chick
Nikon D300
Nikkor 80-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 VR @ 360 mm
ISO 640, f/7.1, 1/1000 sec., Matrix metering + 1.0
The creeks and tidal channels of Maryland's Eastern Shore contain hundreds of osprey nesting platforms. A recent boat trip yielded this image of an almost ready to fledge osprey chick on one of them.
The image has been cropped a bit to eliminate most of the nest, and to concentrate on the remarkable, penetrating gaze of this young bird.
As usual, C&C will be most welcome.
Norm Dulak
Wonderful view of this youngster! Wish for a better angle and their seems to be noise (?) in the eyes especially. Love those eyes and open mouth, though!!!
Did you lighten the eyes, or are those nictating membranes? If you did lighten the eyes I would suggest bringing the pupils back to black. Noise already mentioned - looks like it might come from a large crop. The OOF material in LRC is somewhat distracting as it is not clear what it is, I'm wondering if putting some of the nest back in would help the viewers identify this as part of the nest. The expression is priceless!!
I totally Agree with David and Daniel here, especially about showing some of the nest. You did good in controlling the whites with the angle the sun was coming from.
Brian
Great comments so far. Thanks! And I'll consider adding back some of the nest.
As for the eyes, I did lighten one of them a bit, the one on the left as you view the image (the chick's right eye). I did that only because that eye was a bit in the shade, and I wanted to balance the brightness of the eyes.
Finally, I think the lack of total blackness of the pupils and possible other problems with the eyes are probably the result of strong sun glare.
Norm Dulak
The eyes looks a bit noisy but I like the open beak and the simmetry of both eyes. I would run some noise reduction and increase of contrast in th eyes. A vertical crop is another option to consider here.
I agree with Daniel's comment here. Nice subject and powerfull image nontheless.
Congratulations.
Osprey Chick
Thanks to everyone for all of the valuable comments you have offered!
I'm attaching a repost image here that I hope is responsive to what you have said, but I do so with some reservations.
I felt that the crop of my original post was dictated by the nature of the nest, and the chick's position within it. The nest was large, and the chick was considerably away from the front edge of the nest. As a result, the nest was quite out of focus, and there were elements of it that I found visually unpleasant. Nevertheless, I offer this repost that does include more nest elements for your consideration.
In incorporating more of the nest, I found that I had to eliminate undesirable elements to the right of the bird as we view it. A strict vertical crop also did not work well for me. So I've reluctantly resorted to the square crop you see here, which I hope will elicit your comments.
While producing this repost, I've also done some PS work on the eyes, which reduce or eliminate the effects of the sun's glare, and possibly some of the other problems you have described.
Do you think this repost is an improvement over the original posting?
Norm Dulak
The crop decision is a bit tricky, I agree. The stare and open beak make this one for me and the darkened pupils looks much better.
Norm the eyes look unnatural in your repost. I suggest to make a slective noise reduction and levels adjustment only to the pupiles. Additional noise reduction to the BG and to the red mouth. In this repost is a detail of what I am talking about
Juan's advice will help with the eyes as I agree the repost eyes look weird. it is a penetrating gaze for sure!!
Thanks again for the comments. But considering everything that has been said, I'm inclined to rely on my original post.
You can see from the repost the problems I had with the bulk of the nest, out of focus as it was. And also problems that arise when attempting to correct perceived problems with the eyes.
Again, I think that sun glare accounted for any suboptimal appearance of the eyes. A Nikon D300 camera set at an ISO equivalent of 640 should not present a "noise" problem, particularly when the noise is present in only a tiny part of the image.
It may be that the best solution for improvement would be a discrete darkening of the pupils in the original post. But your appreciation of the look of this remarkable young bird affirms my decision to share the image with you.
And thanks again for all of your comments on this image!
Norm Dulak
Every young Osprey I have photographed had orangeish eyes. I didn't think they turned yellow until they were adults :confused:.
Mike, you could be right. This may not have been a near fledgling, but a more mature osprey. Thanks for the correction, and for the excellent group photo.Originally Posted by Mike Tracy
Norm Dulak
Osprey Chick
My decision to call this bird a chick was based upon two factors. First, when I approached numerous nesting platforms with my boat, the parents generally flew from the platforms and watched from a distance, leaving their chicks behind. Secondly, the eye color of this bird is more red than the light amber color expected for an adult bird.
But as Mike's photo and the family picture I've posted here show, the eyes of chicks are usually more reddish.
Norm Dulak
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