Spring Eagle

A very close fly-by of an adult Bald Eagle at Valdez, Alaska. This was taken at the tide flats near the new townsite (about 13 miles from my home).

Sony a6500, FE 100-400 GM @ 100 mm, ISO-100, f/6.3, 1/3200, hand held.

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Gary Minish

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
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Hi Gary - I love to see eagles in flight. We lived in AK for 22 years and it was always a treat to see them fly over our home. This is a pretty woazy shot for handheld :raised_hands: The mts add to the sense of height and framing/comp of eagle give the sense of the flyby. You captured this on spectacularly :raised_hands:

Gary, I am jealous with this shot. Very nicely done. 150mm field of view, you must have been really close. This is a very sharp image, too. Huge congrats on this image. No nits whatsoever from me. I love the background.

Gary: Another one of your up close and personal bald eagle flying shots. Just lovely with great context for the eagle in the mountains. Hard to nit pick with this, but if it were mine, I’d brighten up the white head a bit. Plenty of detail there, but not as white as I’d like to see. Just a thought.

@Keith_Bauer brought up a very good point. I agree that this could be brighten up a little bit to bring the white feathers closer to being white.

Gary, this is a great look at this eagle with perfect details in the birds. The mountains make a terrific background. How nice to get this at 100 mm so you could get wingtip to wingtip sharpness in the bird.

Beautiful, Gary. The eagle is so big and sharp, it almost looks superimposed on the background. Excellent image.

Really cool to have the opportunity to get an image like this. Superb composition. I can almost feel as I was looking through your electronic viewfinder. I do agree that the feathers on the head could be a tad bit brighter and whiter. But still, I would be thrilled with this. Nicely done!

Thank you all for the critiques/comments. I did consider the possibility of artificially brightening its head but as you can see by the tail feathers, it was a pretty dirty bird. They tend to be that way in the Spring but as they exchange feathers throughout the Summer they brighten up nicely.

I tried brightening up the head feathers and the tail feathers just a bit. It was a little bit tricky to do the selective adjustment but I think it turned out OK.

Looks better to me. Made a very nice frame even better :grinning:

I’m not sure how I missed seeing this beauty, Gary. Excellent shot, and the repost made it even better. You are sure blessed to have eagles and snow capped mountains for the background near where you live. Of course, with that means some long cold winters, huh? I would love to get back to visit Alaska again, with the equipment and knowledge that I have gained since 2006! Congrats on the EP!

Thanks, Shirley! Yes, the winters are long but they can be particularly beautiful also, especially in Valdez with all the snow and the mountains that rise straight out of the bay. You should come on up with your current equipment and skill level and give it a go!

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Very nice. How are you liking the camera/lens combination?