bald eagle

This was shot from a moving boat, handheld. I have been practicing with a Nikkor 80-

400mm zoom this summer. I have some of my own criticisms of this image. I'll be

interested in other comments. Check the image larger and look at the metadata.

Thanks a lot!

I'm hard pressed to find any fault with it. I am especially impressed because I know you don't like to make any alterations to your original photos. Well done!

Main thing wrong with image is its not a good angle of view, it doesn't really show the majesty of the bird, like the great wings, the piercing eyes, and the great beak. I try and shoot bird coming at me, if he is going away from me I figure I lost the shot. Appears to be well exposed with good detail though.

Thank you, Kathy!

 

Monte, I agree with you about the angle of view. My larger area of disappointment was that the focus is really on the feathers of the right wing and tail and not on the head. The eagle was flying away from me and I agree that most of the time it is a wasted shot. When I examined the feather detail, I was happy with that so I thought it might make for a little discussion about the technical aspects of shooting flying birds. Do you always shoot wide open? Or does it depend on the circumstances? Thanks for the comments, which I always find helpful.

 

Dick

Very beautiful picture, as you already have said, the only critique here is about the left wing, you missed the angle, But it is still a fantastic shot, very sharp, All the best friend.

Thank you very much, Joao!

Most of the time I shoot wide open unless, I think the bird is going to be fairly close and dof is going to be more of a factor or if I have plenty of light and the bg is not an issue I'll stop down some. My lens is sharp when wide open, some lens you have to stop down.

Thanks for answering, Monte. I've found this lens is sharp at 400mm but sharper between 200 and about 360. Stopping it down is not usually an option unless I'm in very bright light since I'm already at f5.6 at 400mm. I'd love to have the 200-400...it was a matter of dollars. The new 500mm f4 VR looks tempting for the future.

 

Regards,

 

Dick