This is not the best bird shot I have ever taken but it was definitely the most fun. Got it on the first day while out fishing and was never able to get another shot of action that I could use. Three eagles were taking fish as we tried to reel them in so I threw this one part of my catch and then grabbed the camera while in a rubber raft, pretty tricky! This is the only shot that was in decent focus. Tried multiple times but these buggers were so fast and close. I plan on going out again and getting a better shot when the weather permits. Win or lose it does not matter, this was a gas.
RAW Conversion using RSE set at auto exposure, minor adjustments to white balance, noise reduction at 20, saved at highest quality jpg. MS Image Pro used to do significant crop (shot at 28mm so image of eagle was small), adjust levels and curves, minor second noise reduction, resize and save.
Original date/time: 2005:06:06 13:27:43
Exposure time: 1/1600
Shutter speed: 1/1599.05
F-stop: 5.0
ISO speed: 400
Focal length: 28.0000
Focal length (35mm): 42
Flash: Not fired
Exposure mode: Auto
White balance: Auto
Exposure bias: -0.3333
Metering mode: Pattern
Exposure program: Aperture priority
Camera model: NIKON D70
Statistics
Place: 12 out of 289 Avg (all users): 6.8957 Avg (commenters): 7.6923 Avg (participants): 6.7333 Avg (non-participants): 7.1327 Views since voting: 3832 Views during voting: 457 Votes: 278 Comments: 50 Favorites: 10 (view)
JB, what a great shot. And reading the story, it sounds like you had a ball getting it. This was a pretty hot challenge, with many many very good photos and a lot of high scores. Makes your top 20 finish all the sweeter! Congratulations!
Wow! 43 comments, 4 favorites and my highest score ever (by a whooping .034)! Thanks to all for the comments and the votes. I think most of the questions you asked are explained above. As you can see I did not have a lot of choice on composition and the like but feel lucky to have gotten this.
very interesting. unfortunately, made me think of staged performance instead of wilderness action. Maybe because the eagle looks so beautiful against a rather drab scenery. like the way the fish appears to still be fighting. wish a longer lense was used to blur out the background. wish the colors and focus were a bit stronger. overall nice comp and capture.
Wow this is an absolutely extraordinary capture, how long did you have to sit and wait to get this one? Job well done! I am always so envious of shots like this, one to be proud of for sure. Good luck! 10
fantastic capture. with a slightly shallower DoF the attention would be fully focussed on the bird and the moment you have caught so well. Have to mark down slightly as an image because the background is distracting.
Great shot. Unbelievable capture; it shows the immense wingspan of the bird and strength to fly with cargo. Maybe a little too much noise? Try and post-edit more true color into the white on the head and green in the trees.
What an amazing image!! The action of this shot is superb...a truly great capture. I wish that the detail was a little more clear, there seems to be a lot of noise in the photo. Colors look wonderful!
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