Huh? Better get out of here!!!

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Photographed last week near Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan. JR

Canon 1DMkIV, 500F4IS, 1/500s, F4, ISO 800, Manual Exposure, Handheld

PS: those two are white-tailed eagles

[Kiran Poonacha]

Its a dream to photograph these beauty, hopefully god will bless me with such a day...

great pose of the birds, the whites make the birds pop well and the DOF is nicely in control.. well done.

[Ken Watkins]

Only one word for it sensational

[Harshad Barve]

Only one word for it sensational

Plus one here my friend , Big congrats
TFS

[Dave Walz]

What a beautiful capture! How long did you have to sit to get this image? Just great to see the interaction between the two birds.

[arash_hazeghi]

superb! love the pose and details on both

[Bill Dix]

Spectacular shot. Love the poses, interaction, background. Congrats!!

[Doug Brown]

Fantastic capture of two incredible eagles! Just out of curiosity, did you do any BG blurring?

[Morkel Erasmus]

fantastic exposure, poses and interaction - great 3D feel here

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thank you all for the kind feedback. As you can imagine I am very happy with this image as well.

Fantastic capture of two incredible eagles! Just out of curiosity, did you do any BG blurring?

No. The only thing I did to the background was a highlight adjustment. But perhaps I should have explained more the circumstances of the scene. The eagles are sitting/landing on ice floes in the sea between Hokkaido and the Russian Kunashiri island and the image was taken from a boat. So, any apparent blurring in the background might very well be slight movement of the ice floes due to waves.

JR

[Joerg Rockenberger]

How long did you have to sit to get this image?

I went three mornings for a 2 - 2.5 hour ride each with a tour boat this year. This image and the preceding frame were the only ones out of probably 2500 - 3000 images taken during these tours which captured the action nicely. In 2009 I did another boat trip as part of a Hokkaido photography workshop and got nothing like this shot.

Note, the concentration of eagles on those ice floes is relatively high during this tour as they are used to being fed by fishing boats in the morning and hence they congregate around boats near the ice floes. So, the event of an eagle trying to land on a spot which is occupied by another eagle happens actually relatively often. But of course getting all the other parameters right make it still a lottery and I frankly feel quite lucky to have captured it. But I also worked for it as my arms/shoulders were quite sore - let alone getting up and out on the sea before sunrise at subzero temperatures - and hence think that I deserved that shot also.

JR

[Levina de Ruijter]

Oh my, this is terrific! I would print that out and hang it on my wall...

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

WOW...Joerg, you rock :-)

stunning action...great angles on both birds and so well composed and exposed. great IQ to go with it...slam dunk for IOTW IMO.

[Pieter de Waal]

Superb image Joerg great action and wonderful exposure. An image like this is not achieved without the extra effort you have put into it - well done.

[stuart wanuck]

lovely lovely lovely

[Giulio Zanni]

Congratulations, amazing shot!

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thank you all for your comments. Much appreciated. JR

[Ken Watkins]

I went three mornings for a 2 - 2.5 hour ride each with a tour boat this year. This image and the preceding frame were the only ones out of probably 2500 - 3000 images taken during these tours which captured the action nicely. In 2009 I did another boat trip as part of a Hokkaido photography workshop and got nothing like this shot.

Note, the concentration of eagles on those ice floes is relatively high during this tour as they are used to being fed by fishing boats in the morning and hence they congregate around boats near the ice floes. So, the event of an eagle trying to land on a spot which is occupied by another eagle happens actually relatively often. But of course getting all the other parameters right make it still a lottery and I frankly feel quite lucky to have captured it. But I also worked for it as my arms/shoulders were quite sore - let alone getting up and out on the sea before sunrise at subzero temperatures - and hence think that I deserved that shot also.

JR

Nice story, it is great when "hard work" pays off

[Manjeet & Yograj Jadeja]

stunning shot,
nice composition and timing

[Ofer Levy]

Great behaviour and action shot!

[RakeshDhareshwar]

The DOF is awesome considering you shot this at f4 . Awesome action and great exposure !!