On The Nest

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
1

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Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction

Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.

Questions to guide your feedback

Sharp enough? Too much contrast?

Other Information

Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.

Image Description

High on the Golden Wall near the Red Canyon Area of Dixie NF in Utah, an American Bald Eagle, (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) sits in her nest with two chicks waiting for her mate to return with food. At the date of this photo there were only seven mating pairs of Bald Eagles in Utah. I heard from the Rangers that a pair was heard on the Golden Wall Trail, but had not been seen. While hiking the trail, a five-mile loop, I too heard their calls and followed their calls to find their nest site. It was situated approximately 1/4 mile away, across the wash and a few hundred feet above the valley floor on the face of the Golden Wall. A lot of sitting and waiting for the family to pose for their portrait.

Technical Details

Canon EOS 30D; Canon EF70-200mm +2x @ 390mm; f/5.6 @ 1/250 sec, ISO 100; Gitzo tripod, RRS BH 55, remote trigger

Specific Feedback

Whatever you wish, positive or otherwise.

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Nice shot. Judged by today’s need everything sharp, sharp, sharp, not sharp enough.

3

Thank you @Jim_Gavin for your comments. All things considered, I made the birds the primary focus. As I am sure you know, my selected aperture, 5.6, doesn’t provide much depth of field but it gave me the faster shutter speed necessary to minimize the chances that the birds be caught moving. The days of f/64 are long gone.