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A History of Flight
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A History of Flight

by Craig Myers

Gallery: Weekly ChallengePosted March 24, 201131 views4 comments
Sandy Richards's recent excellent image, "Two Worlds," in the EP gallery, reminded me of an image of mine from a couple of years ago, which was also taken in Seattle. I was in a wetlands area near the UW campus, when an osprey settled on a broken tree branch caught in the crook of two other branches. I had hoped to catch the bird taking off from his perch, but for two hours, until it got too dark for my picture, it contented itself with surveying the horizon and frustrating the human behind the lens. The area is also close to the flight path of planes landing at SeaTac, and I thought it would be cool to catch the osprey against the jet in the background. Not what I had hoped for originally, but a reasonable consolation prize.

1/500 @ f/10; 70mm; ISO 100; 70-200 f/2.8L; Canon EOS 40D; tripod; cable release.

Comments

4 comments
Comment posted by Zachary Lake on March 24, 2011 at 11:49 AM
Great job. The broken branch and plane make this image very interesting. And of course, the color of the image, composition, and pose of the osprey are very nice.
Registered on July 1, 2008, 24 Posts, 120 Comments
Comment posted by Monica Siri on March 24, 2011 at 12:48 PM
Craig,
I like the "contrast" you have captured between the bird and the plane. Very nice background color and comp. :toast:
Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments
Comment posted by Paul Duval on March 24, 2011 at 11:29 PM
To have gotten this incomparable image without compositing two images is stellar Craig. Just goes to show that what we get is sometimes far far away from what we expect.

Paul
Registered on June 30, 2009, 508 Posts, 1907 Comments
Comment posted by Varina Patel on March 28, 2011 at 12:33 PM
Boy, Craig - this shot is absolutely loaded with symbolism. :) I love the high contrast of the bird - and the fading contrast of the plane in the distance. I'd love to see a tighter crop here - I wouldn't mind losing a few of the branches in the frame, since they don't seem to add much to the image. The slight glow around the bird is also a bit distracting. Other than that, I can't find anything to complain about. I think this is a beautiful image, and I love your title. The turn of the bird's head is just right for a silhouette shot. Neat image!
Registered on August 22, 2008, 45 Posts, 1578 Comments