A juvenile Bald Eagle caught the salmon in the shallow tide water and was walkimg it toward the beach.
Sony a6500, SEL200600G @ 485 mm, ISO-500, f/6.3, 1/2500, hand held.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I would like some opinions regarding composition and the gull:
- does the gull distract or does it add environmental context?
- I could crop a little on the right side to move the eagle a little off center but it would cut off the side of the gull. Would that be better or worse?
- I have other photos of the eagle without the gull but they don’t show much of the salmon. How important is the salmon?
Thank you in advance!
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Great photo Gary. For me, the gull does not distract, it adds to the story, like he is hope the eagle will drop the salmon. Again, for me, I would not crop, the eagle in the middle does not seem that obvious because of all the action. Also think that the salmon is important because he is the story, for me. Nicely done.
I wasn’t sure if the gull was a distraction or not so here’s a quick version with the gull removed. See what you think with / without??
Hey Keith! That’s an option I didn’t really think much about because it looked like it would be too much work to do it right. I don’t know how much time you spent removing the gull but it looks pretty good. Nice job of filling in the water. It does put more focus on the eagle. I may have to spend the time to perform the surgery on the original file 
Hi Gary: took about 5 minutes. The trick with these kinds of clones is to make a good selection of the part you want to protect when you clone. In this case, the tips of the eagles wing, then create a layer mask out of that with the selection flipped so the wing is black on the mask. Then clone away and you can’t screw up the wing.
IQ is great. This has a lot of impact. Definitely another vote to evict the gull. I’d also add a little to the left. Man, you witness some awesome stuff way up there!
Wonderful action caught with sharp detail. I prefer it without the gull, but it does add another element to the story. It shouldn’t be too difficult to add canvas to the right and give the gull a little more room. The salmon is definitely important and would be very difficult to remove due to the water it has disturbed.
