Balancing on Good Leg
by jbsmithana

Comment by jfwolpert:
great capturing the moment

Balancing on Good Leg
by jbsmithana

Comment by ashoff:
Nice shot, love the pose the bird has.

Balancing on Good Leg
by jbsmithana

Comment by kscarff:
nice decisive moment photo!

Balancing on Good Leg
by jbsmithana

Comment by PaulE:
Beautiful take. Can't tell if anything really is broken, but love the picture anyway.

Balancing on Good Leg
by jbsmithana

Comment by tryals15:
I assume that's haloing from overshapening on the wing?...

Returning from the hunt
by jbsmithana

Comment by RayEthier:
When I first saw this photo, I thought my eyes were acting up a tad, as what I saw was for the most part of out of focus. While I did indeed appreciate the ducks being out of focus, as they were not the primary issue of consideration, I did not understand the soft focus on the bird and the branches.

I like the idea of the blue hue to denote the cold (the little you get of it in WA... :O) - but I would have cropped it differently, leaving the bird at the extreme left edge of the image.

All factors considered, and knowing from personal experience how difficult it is to capture wild birds... you did relatively well. I gave it a middle of the road score.

Ray

Returning from the hunt
by jbsmithana

Comment by sfalice:
Interesting. cpanaioti and I are on the same wavelength on this one. (only I confess she was more generous in the scoring than I was.) But I do remember looking at it long and hard and giving it a lot of thought when it came up in the voting sequence.

Returning from the hunt
by jbsmithana

Comment by macrothing:
I gave this a 6. Nice capture. I recall thinking that 'if only' to see more of the nest would have made for a great shot, plus it seemed like a natural setting, which is always a good thing. The main reasons I didn't score this higher were the toning (loss of color/detail), the composition (but obviously an opportune capture - just seemed 'out' to me, if the placement within frame were the opposite of what it is here, likely have made this better, but a moot point in opportunity shots) and the slightly dominant branches at the fore with minor gamma(?) issues in the blacks. Not good that you didn't receive a single comment during the Challenge.

Returning from the hunt
by jbsmithana

Comment by olddj:
I did not get to vote on this, but I probably would have scored it a five, the blue is okay IMO, the foreground blurring is bad, and the eagle itself lacks detail to me, so much so I actually thought it was coming straighter in when I first looked at it and its head was just to the left of the white feathers on its chest. Had to take a few seconds to see where my eyes betrayed me. Agree cropping it down a bit more would have helped it IMO, maybe JUST to the left of his talons, maybe just show the tip of the log he looks like he is trying to land on? Maybe a bit off the bottom and right side too? Have to play with it to see what works best but I do believe bear was correct in saying it is too close to center for this challenge. Hope these comments help!!

Jacque

Returning from the hunt
by jbsmithana

Comment by skewsme:
Hi, I missed voting on this one. Looking now, I don't mind the OOF foreground and background (although could potentially lose a bit of the fore) - but given their blur, I want the eagle to really reward my eye. Ultra-clear focus might not have been possible with the motion on this one, but maybe you could dodge the bird's white parts - especially around the eye. Possibly even put some subtle dodging/halo around his whole body and multiply layers - get him to stand out more, contrast the background. Also, cropping a bit to make him more (off-) central to the composition could help too. Better luck next time :)