I'm working through my 2010 images as I am WAY behind on overall processing.
This was taken on a quick trip to the central region of the Kruger National Park, South Africa. I had never spotted this eagle in South Africa before this. We were photographing a colony of Carmine Bee-Eaters performing some acrobatics when this eagle showed up from seemingly out of nowhere and perched on the perch that the bee-eaters were using.
Despite the busy thorn-bush background I still like how this one 'pop' from the background. Your comments are highly appreciated...
I would appreciate your feedback as well on whether to keep the space around the subject or crop to portrait? I have a portrait version which I will post below.
In this one, I cropped only slightly to get the head and eye on the ROT strong point.
Techs:
Nikon D300s with Nikkor 200-400mm f4 VR @ 400mm
f5.6 @ 1/1600 SS @ ISO-800
What a wonderful bird. I prefer the vertical crop, not because of size (it's actually smaller in this context), but because it feels more contained without all the extra space. What you lost was not giving me anything.
Everything about the image itself is pure quality. Perfect exposure, light, contrast, focus, and great HA and eye contact. Well done.
Wow, love that vertical crop. In the original image I thought it was a nice bird with a busy background, but when I saw the crop I thought, what a difference!
Hi Mork, I would go with your OP, as long as you take a bit off the RHS. I always enjoy these look back poses, and the eagle is separated nicely from the BG. Good feather detail too.