Dollar the Bald Eagle
Genuinely his name. A resident at The Raptor Foundation
Genuinely his name. A resident at The Raptor Foundation
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Jul, 2015Views
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Awards
Action Award
People's Choice in The Best Black and White Photo Photo Challenge
People's Choice in CARNIVORES! Photo Challenge
Top Choice
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Magnificent Capture
Outstanding Creativity
Jaw Dropping
Superior Skill
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken at a raptor sanctuary not too far away from me - The Raptor Foundation, http://www.raptorfoundation.org.uk/ - on a photography day. This was looking towards shaded areas in the background hence managing a back background with only minimal edits. Originally left this as colour but looking back through the photos I picked a few out to do some further tinkering with and so ended up with this. It's always worth looking through old photos as your photography develops to see what you might do differently or any new ideas you get - it might be that it is only a simple edit required as I found with this shot. At the time I had never considered B&W for the raptors and was very pleased with this, though I still have a lot to learn.Time
This was taken late morning on a very hot and sunny July day - this helped getting the almost naturally black background as we were able to get quite close to the raptors being a photography day and the shade in the background was naturally much darker because of the bright sun in the lighted areas.Lighting
This was taken late morning on a very hot and sunny July day - this helped getting the almost naturally black background as we were able to get quite close to the raptors being a photography day and the shade in the background was naturally much darker because of the bright sun in the lighted areas.Equipment
This was taken with a Fujifilm HS20EXRInspiration
I have always loved taking pictures of birds of prey since getting my HS20 - my first trip out with it was to The Raptor Foundation where this was taken. I had organised a photography day for a group of like minded people so we could try our hands at it with a more natural setting for the birds.Editing
There were still a couple of dark green areas but wanted all distraction removed from the bird so I removed any of these areas apparent, then tweaked the contrast and darkened the shadows and highlights in an effort to bring out a little more feather details in the white feathers on the head - this also gave (what I thought was) a pleasing effect of making it appear as if it was largely hidden in the shadows.In my camera bag
Usually just my HS20EXR with cleaning items for the lens, I do have a couple of filters in the bag as well but they are rarely used.Feedback
As stated before this is much easier on very bright sunny days and getting into a position where you are looking into space under trees for instance to give that dark background particularly important with bald eagles or any other birds with white feathers is to check them carefully to be sure they are not blown out.
