I was very fortunate to capture this image of a Juvenile Bald Eagle in early January at Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, Florida. I captured the image using a Canon 400mm f2.8 lens with a 2X extender on a Canon 5D Mark III body. The camera settings were 1/30th of a second at F11 and ISO 100. It was my first experience with the lens, which I rented from BorrowLenses.com. I was very impressed with the sharpness of the image, especially with the 2X extender in the light path.
Hi Charles, that's a beautiful bird no doubt. Looking at the eagle itself takes my eye to about 25% max of the image, otherwise I'm lost with all the blurred, uninteresting tree branches. Cropping out a bunch of the uninteresting trees might enhance the image.
Were glad to have you here Charles, however I'm not familiar with you stuff. Do you want critique, or are you sharing?
Always looking to get better, Kane. Critiques and advice are most welcome. Thank you for taking the time to respond. I'll crop the image and post the results.
Unfortunately, while I was moving my tripod to a much better vantage point, a smaller bird spooked the Eagle and it flew off. These moments are rare, precious, and fleeting.
Posted by Don Grall on January 23, 2014 at 1:42 PM
First, congrats on getting a nice eagle image. They are not easy to get close to unless you're in Alaska. Some critique for you: (hopefully it's helpful). When your subject is looking to the left or right it is usually better for that subject to be looking into the overall frame. This means your eagle would possibly be more engaging to the viewer if it were left of center looking to the right of the frame. More importantly than subject positioning inside the frame for this image though is your use of foreground elements to frame your subject. This can be solved with post processing if you don't mind doing some digital manipulation to a natural subject . Because there is no background detail to blend with foreground detail it would be really beneficial to your subject if you fully blurred out all foreground branches, leaving only the eagle sharp, thus allowing it to command the viewers attention. Hope this helps!
Discussion
6 repliesRegards,
Charlie
http://www.charleswhitingphotography.com
Were glad to have you here Charles, however I'm not familiar with you stuff. Do you want critique, or are you sharing?
Unfortunately, while I was moving my tripod to a much better vantage point, a smaller bird spooked the Eagle and it flew off. These moments are rare, precious, and fleeting.
Charlie
Charlie
Charlie