Bald Eagle

[Duane Noblick]

50D, 500mm f/4L, manual, f/4, 1/800, ISO 400, spot metering, tripod, first light

Another one from the 15 images as the female Eagle flew right at me with a branch for their nest. This was just as she started to make her turn to the nest...hence the head angle looking for how she was going to enter the nest tree. This is about 80% of the original image.

[Dave Leroy]

It looks like you have a very good position to photograph them as they come in to the nest. Nice interactive shot with lots of detail. Well done. Dave

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great to see this behavior, I also like the sharpness. I would tone down the highlights and if you have show the entire branch, a vertical crop might work, too.

[John Goldman]

My first glance at this photo was of a perched eagle. Then I read your description, ah ha, not perched!

I agree with Axel, show the whole branch, if you have it, in a vertical crop. I prefer less tight crops with a behavioral photo.

Beautiful color, sharpness, lots to like about this capture.

[Duane Noblick]

Thanks for the critiques. Unfortunately the branch was cut off and just the sides were trimmed in the crop. I have other frames showing the entire branch that I cropped vertical but I liked the look on the Eagles face in this one.

This branch was a lot larger at one point but you can see a broken off piece that she bit off when she landed in a tree prior to this series of images.

I think I posted this one a while ago but it shows the entire branch in the frame.