Bald Eagle - Close up

Posted by Greg Downing on Sun Feb 15, 2004 1:21 pm

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© Greg Downing Photography all rights reserved.

Bald Eagle, Homer, AK

Hope everyone is enjoying the new thumbnails!

I have a philosophy that there is an appropriate composition for any focal length. I love close ups and can be called a focal length addict of sorts. I think I will present a series of close-up shots from the Homer trip, starting with this one.

If you think this is close think again.

Comments and brutal critiques welcomed!

EOS 10D, EF 600/4 IS, 2xII TC, Wimberley on window mount, manual focus on the tip of the bill, 1/200 @ f13, ISO 400, flash as main at -1/3, full frame, flipped horizontally.

P.S. Sorry for posting a couple hours early. I have some work to get done today and wanted to get this out of the way.

Greg Downing
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Last edited by Greg Downing on Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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by Jerry Merrell on Sun Feb 15, 2004 1:39 pm

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Greg, don't hold your breath waiting for the brutal critiques. This is a wonderful image.

Jerry Merrell

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by AlexC on Sun Feb 15, 2004 1:39 pm

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Greg wrote:

I have a philosophy that there is an appropriate composition for any focal length

No better proof than here, excellent detail for the long glass plus 2X at 1/200sec SS, Pretty steady tripod/hand as well, the exposure speaks volumes!!
About the thumbnails!!
What I like about the new setup is that I can get to salivate about 1.5 seconds earlier than before, as it was, you never knew what kind of candy you were getting until unwrapped, now I can get to smell the rapping foil before tasting the morsel!! Way to go !!!!

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by Scott Allen on Sun Feb 15, 2004 1:57 pm

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Beautiful image Greg. I love the glissen on the end of the beek.

"If you think this is close think again."

Agreed! Having been there I know what you mean! I actually had one get pusshed off Jeans trailer on to my shoulder during a fight for fish. Now that's close!!!

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.”

Great light and shooting to you all!

Scotto

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by Sandy Mossberg on Sun Feb 15, 2004 3:03 pm

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Love the close-ups, Greg. Keep a steady flow of them.

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by Len Backus on Sun Feb 15, 2004 3:49 pm

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Wonderful shot Greg, and I am loving the thumbnails.

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by Scott A. Flaherty on Sun Feb 15, 2004 4:07 pm

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Great job. I love the water drop forming at the end of its beak.

Scott Flaherty
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by Maxis Gamez on Sun Feb 15, 2004 4:29 pm

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That guy look mean

Nice flash and composition.

Maxis Gamez

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by James on Sun Feb 15, 2004 7:16 pm

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Love the composition here. You are correct saying a good composition can be found with most images.

A few questions, why only -0.3 on the flash and not -1.7 for this shot? Please explain for the ignorant among us.

How often would you say, do you use manual focus vs. auto focus? My guess is >75% of the time due to composition reasons.

Looking forward to seeing more...

James

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by Greg Downing on Sun Feb 15, 2004 7:28 pm

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James wrote:Love the composition here. You are correct saying a good composition can be found with most images.

A few questions, why only -0.3 on the flash and not -1.7 for this shot? Please explain for the ignorant among us.

How often would you say, do you use manual focus vs. auto focus? My guess is >75% of the time due to composition reasons.

Looking forward to seeing more...

James

James, The flash was at -1/3 due to the fact that it was the main source of illumination for the subject as indicated by "flash as main" in the original post. The background was quite bright and distracting, and the ambient light level was low, resulting in slow shutter speeds. So, in order to darken the background I set the shutter speed to the maximum sync speed of the camera and adjusted the aperture to render enough DOF in the image and, at the same time, to underexpose the background by over 1 stop.

As for manual focus I did that here by necessity since the 10D does not AF with lens combinations that have a minimum aperture value of more than f5.6 (f4 plus the 2x = f8). Otherwise I probably would have just auto-focused on the tip of the bill.

Sorry for the long answer for a short question.

Greg Downing
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by Heather Forcier on Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:12 pm

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Nice comp in this close up, great detail. Your close up shots inspired me while in Homer to try a few of my own, and I ended up happy with a couple of them.

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by Jill on Sun Feb 15, 2004 9:29 pm

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Intense and powerful, Greg!!! Awesome image!!

Jill Rosenfield

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by E.J. Peiker on Sun Feb 15, 2004 9:54 pm

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Awesome shot dude

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by ebkw on Sun Feb 15, 2004 10:44 pm

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Beautiful shot, Greg.

I have a question about this particular bird. It looks as though its beak is slightly crossed. Is it or is it just the angle?

Eleanor Kee Wellman, eleanorkeewellman.com, Blog at: keewellman.wordpress.com

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by Alan Murphy on Sun Feb 15, 2004 10:53 pm

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Great comp, great photo.

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by Greg Downing on Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:08 pm

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ebkw wrote:Beautiful shot, Greg.

I have a question about this particular bird. It looks as though its beak is slightly crossed. Is it or is it just the angle?

Eleanor,

Thanks for looking. Actually this is one of the reasons I love to do close-ups; because you can see details that aren't normally noticed from a distance. A Bald Eagle's lower mandible actually fits inside the upper mandible, so there is overlap on both sides. I suspect this aids in tearing apart it's prey, such as fish etc. You can also get a good look at it in this post of another bird calling:

http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=9927

On second thought that shot doesn't show it very well. I'll try to post something here from a front view shortly. Come back and check.

Here's a crop from another shot that shows how the top manible overlaps the bottom on both sides.

Greg Downing
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by Dennis Olivero on Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:54 pm

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Terrific shot Greg and notes about how you made it using flash as main very helpful...

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by Tim Grams on Mon Feb 16, 2004 12:48 am

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I love the framing and the details.

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by Dick Ginkowski on Mon Feb 16, 2004 9:15 am

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Dennis Olivero wrote:Terrific shot Greg and notes about how you made it using flash as main very helpful...

I agree with Dennis. WOw.

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by Jack Frank on Mon Feb 16, 2004 9:36 pm

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Kudos Love closeups

Jack Frank
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