African Fish-Eagle

[Chris van Rooyen]

I photographed this eagle last month in the Okavango. Although the light angle was not ideal, the soft morning light allowed me to work in a side-light situation. I really liked the setting - so typical of the Okavango, and the angle was pleasingly low because we were working from a boat. Comments welcome as always:)

Camera Model: NIKON D3
Date/Time: 2009:09:04 07:36:42
Shutter speed: 1/2000 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 1600
Lens: 500mm with 1.4x converter
Focal length: 700mm

[Raymond Barlow]

pretty fantastic shot Chris, congrats! I would suggest cloning out the whites on the perch., besides that, a superb image.

[Harshad Barve]

fantastic shot Chris , lovely expo , HA , sharpness ,
I liked it very much as presented
TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

Fabulous Chris, exposure, detail, focus everything right on money. love the composition with the perch and BG, absolute perfection. Raptors usually poop before flying, it is a behavioral feature and therefore I would not clone it out.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Good-looking specimen and I like the wide crop for this. I might reduce the blue channel on the neck and head a few points.

[Don Lacy]

Very nice image, I especially like the diagonal line of the wing thru the frame and the why the BG creates a sense of place with out being a distraction.

[Aidan Briggs]

Great take off pose, setting, and warm light. The light angle is not the best, but you did a good job handling it.

[Arthur Morris]

Congrats on a superb composition (or motif as Fritz Poilking called it).

Can you tell us how you focused (or cropped?)

[Rob Drummond]

Wonderful light Chris - those hunched shoulders suggest enormous effort and power

cheers
Rob

[Kiran Poonacha]

Wow, one more lovely shot of this beautiful bird, loved the pose, great setting and compo. those talons put it on top, congrats Chris...

[Daniel Belasco]

Beautiful light! Love the angle.
Congrats

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks for the comments guys, appreciated. Artie, on the D3 I always use continuous focus, centre sensor with 9 points expanded. In this instance I cropped some space from the left and the top to improve the composition.

[Marc Mol]

Lovely behavioral image Chris, with the lighting well handled.
Have just come back from the Delta as well and still there in my mind.........a magic place.:)
The D3 & 500VR is a great combo.;)

[Chris van Rooyen]

Indeed Marc, I will be there again in two week's time! Hope to see many Delta images from you:-)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the comments guys, appreciated. Artie, on the D3 I always use continuous focus, centre sensor with 9 points expanded. In this instance I cropped some space from the left and the top to improve the composition.

Thanks Chris. Your choice of crop and final COMP was superb.

[Desmond Chan]

Wonderful sharpness, exposure, and beautiful colors !!!