Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in flight

Any comments appreciated. I know some purists would disagree with

photographing captive animals, but I live in the Midlands, so there's

not much chance of me getting close to one of these beautiful animals

in the wild. For the experienced birders is there anything you'd do

differently? I was panning while photographing so I'd imagine slowing

the shutter might give a bit of blur to the background, but at the

risk of motion blur on the bird itself... Thanks for looking!

Very nice flight shot.  Preserved the whites well.  Head and eye sharp.  Rest of bird has good detail, even see some in shadows (but would like to see more).  Don't see too many flight shots at f2.8 because of the limited dof, but doesn't seem to be a problem here.  Neutral oof bg is nice.  Shutter speed is probably about right for this type of shot.  Image is just a little washed out.  Possibly some post processing could cure that.

Very nice shot! TFS!

Don't be too fooled by the antics of the purists......... they also visit the "captive areas" for their shoots..... they are just more subtle about it (smiles).

This is a fine capture, and I like the background affect of your gentle panning. There is a solid crispness to the head with rather a nice eye-capture.

To enhance this image, you could consider cloning out the tethers and lightening up under the wing for a touch of defnition.........

Congrats.......... an interesting shot...... well done.

Regards

beautiful shot........nice work

Nice shot, well done on the capture. Sharp.  Regards, Mark

I am not experienced at bird shots, but I think you did an admirable job with this one. Beautiful! Excellent focus and detail. Lovely!

Mark,

Nice shot of the Bald Eagle!

Not getting on the 'purists' wagon here, . . . and I personally see absolutely nothing wrong with shooting captive birds and letting the viewer know. Although the majority of my own experiences with the Bald Eagle have been in the wild over the past few years. I can attest at how much joy I've personally gotten being afforded the opportunity to observe and photograph them.

No, I probably won't get as close as you have, and in most probability will not obtain the quality shot as you have here!

I agree about cloning out the tether here as an improvement to the shot. Otherwise, I know how hard it is to balance the lighting with the white head and tail against the dark colored wing and body feathers and, I'd say you've done an excellent job here not to mention the wonderful oof background.

Regards always,

Jim j. 

nice eagle BIF

Many thanks for your comments everyone! Although I'm reluctant to doctor the image too much, I've made the changes suggested by Grayham and Jim and agree that the photo is a lot stronger as a result. The edited image is below (click for larger version). I may swap out the original image for this, if so I'll put it in this thread as a new comment so people can see the original.

http://www.skylight3d.com/images/photoNet/VU5A5467-2_small.jpg

Jim, I've had a look at your Bald Eagle photos, they're wonderful. I'm very impressed how you managed to capture similar images to this with wild birds; it must have taken an incredible amount of patience. I was positively spoiled with this opportunity in comparison.

How spoiled? I've merged a few of the photos from the same pass as the photo above. Please excuse the dodgy cloning in the top right corner, I'd have done the same at the bottom left but have no legs to clone in! I've also skipped the penultimate photo because it doesn't easily fit in while the eagle is moving so slowly. Apart from that each image was taken at the 5Diii's maximum burst rate of 6fps. Modern camera equipment is astonishing; I could have picked any of these images and each would have been better than I could have achieved in my film days...

http://www.skylight3d.com/images/photoNet/eagle-thumb.jpg

Thanks again for looking, Mark

This thread has all the makings of a strong learning curve for others viewing your original image.... so I hope you leave it, "as is".

I thank you for your trust in following the comments of others...... your final image looks the part......... an image of a raptor in the wild. Believe me, that's how its done... in most instances (smiles).

Well done...... an interesting thread..........

Best regards

Thank you Grayham.

This is an excellent example of the critique forum on photo.net working exactly as it should; I'm very pleased with this image and hugely appreciate the help from commenters such as yourself.

Although I intended to leave the photo as is, it's been a month and it's slightly bugging me that my portfolio looks slightly less good than it should, so I've updated the main image. For people new to this thread who want some context to the criticisms, the original image is as posted below. Please click to see the full image.

http://www.skylight3d.com/images/photoNet/VU5A5467_small.jpg

Thanks again for all your help!

Wonderful capture! Congrats!

Laura