close-up portrait of a bald eagle...you need to see this and here is why!

[Gato Moteado]

i was probably about 8 feet away from this bird, which was in an aviary at a raptor rescue center and there was a thick gauge screen between us. the amazing part is that the bird was only a few inches behind the screen. i used my nikon Z8 with the 300mm f/4 PF lens shot wide open at f/4. miraculously, even though the bird was so close to the screen, it was rendered so out of focus that it became invisible. this is common when the subject is farther back from the screen or bars at a zoo but i wouldn't have imagined it with the subject almost up to the screen.

P.S. there was nothing i could do about his feather sticking out of his nostril.



here is the screen on the front of the aviary:

[Walleye]

1. Great shot! Good that you tried it anyway in spite of the screen

[Gato Moteado]

27. thank you...yes, i could see in the viewfinder that the screen wasn't showing.....

....i'm sure the unseen matrix of blur compromised sharpness, but overall, it's not too bad

[Bayard]

2. Oh, wow....

That's outstanding!

[Gato Moteado]

28. it's not bad, thanks.....i'll do better as i master the new camera

[Cartoonist]

3. You could Photoshop it away. nt

[druidity33]

5. yeah, but that's a PITA. nt

[eShirl]

4. beautiful eagle eye

[Gato Moteado]

29. yeah, their eyes are interesting

[tavernier]

6. Beautiful shot!

But if that’s the same eagle that tried to swoop down and pick up my dog on the farm last year, you missed the pattern of my tennis racket on his hind end.

[Gato Moteado]

19. ok....hold on a minute.......

.....you carry a tennis racket when you walk your dog on a farm?

there's gotta be a great story behind all that.

[tavernier]

22. The dog is a four pound mix of pure cuteness

but obviously looks like lunch to the eagle that seems to spot her every time we walk out to the barn. He came pretty close one time and only missed getting her when I jumped around screaming and waving my arms. From then on I carried a tennis racket to wave around just in case. We’ve since gone with the leash which she hates, but since it’s my daughter’s farm, I would hate to be responsible for losing her dog when I’m visiting

[Gato Moteado]

24. ah, yeah, i understand

[liberalla]

7. Beautiful!

So glad you tried the shot - that is an amazing result!

[Gato Moteado]

30. thanks.....i get a lucky shot every now and then

[Traildogbob]

8. Hmmmm

The Eagle that represents USA. Maybe the white stuff up the nose is symbolic as well.

[Gato Moteado]

31. i hope not.

but it is annoying in the pic

[dawn5651]

9. wow ...what a beautiful raptor. i miss them here where i live when they go wherever

it is they go for the winter.

[Gato Moteado]

20. how far north are you?

i didn't think eagles migrated.

[dawn5651]

43. i am in new brunswick which is in eastern canada....and yes they leave but because of the work they

have done to make nests for the raptors the bald eagles and hawks have come back to this area...

[lastlib]

10. Magnificent bird! And a terrific picture!

Years ago, I was at a Scout event where they exhibited a bald eagle that had been blinded in an accident and so could not be returned to the wild. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to hold a piece of fish and let the bird take it out of my hand (it almost got a finger in the process!) That was a mountaintop experience for me!

[Gato Moteado]

32. yes, raptors are amazing

when i lived in FL i raised a baby red shouldered hawk that fell from a nest. when it reached adulthood, it was so well behaved with me that i didn't need to wear a glove when it perched on my arm.

[Deuxcents]

11. This one fierce looking raptor.

Great shot of our majestic symbol

[Gato Moteado]

33. i love them....

...but you know what ben franklin said about them?

[prodigitalson]

12. awesome shot. and interesting info about the cage "disapearing"

[Gato Moteado]

34. yes, you can make things in the foreground disappear by rendering them....

...way out of focus. it's why dust and smudges on your lens don't show up in photos. but normally, your subject needs to be a good distance from the bars or screen in the cage......this eagle was right up to the mesh. the fact that i was using a telephoto lens at its widest aperture (f/4) and that i was so close to the subject (within about 8 feet) is what made the depth of field in the shot so narrow....but still, i wouldn't expect that the mesh would be completely invisibly.....i figured there's be some out of focus lines showing up. i imagine the overall sharpness of the shot was compromised, but at least no obstruction was visible.

[Goddessartist]

13. Gorgeous! There's a pair that nests about 400 yards or so up the hill. We live

on Vashon Island, WA. I love them and all of the wildlife here.

[Gato Moteado]

35. how high up is the nest?

[Goddessartist]

40. It's in a pine tree in the forested area behind our

friends' house. Pretty high up. One can see the nest from the back of their house. We see them at the beach and on the KVI tower on the beach.

[mountain grammy]

14. Great shot!!! just amazing.

[Gato Moteado]

36. thank you.....not really amazing tho....it was a pretty easy shot since the bird is captive.....

....but when i get back to CR and spend time around the monkeys with the new gear, i hope to make something amazing!

[mountain grammy]

46. Actually I think the birds are amazing

we watch them all the time.. love the close up of the head and the feather in his nose.. looking forward to more.

[TeamProg]

15. As I get older, the hair on my head is moving to my nostrils! Kind of a similar thing?!?!?!

Aarf!

Nice pic! What Image Quality setting did you shoot this with? And in general?

I just got a new Z7II this last July from B&H with a 24-120 S 4.0 and 14-30 S 4.0. Fun stuff! Finally sold most of my old large and medium format gear (Linhof Tech IV, Mamiya RB67 stuff).

Still deciding on resolution modes to shoot in. 50 MB individual files takes up a lot of storage.

[Gato Moteado]

21. how do you like the Z7ii?

i shoot RAW + jpg fine (heif). anything i post anywhere, i process from RAW and only save the jpg for reference.

[TeamProg]

25. It will do more than I need I'm sure. I like the lens selections

and VR for smaller f stops.

It’s weird paying 1,400 or more for a zoom when really fine large format prime lenses for my Linhof 4x5 might cost 500 for nice Schneider.

As I wrote I have a 14-30 and the 24-120 so I’m thinking about the new-ish 100-400 S as a next lens.

So far so good. It’s all very new to me.

[2naSalit]

16. Well done!

Sometimes that works and sometimes not. Good shot!

[Gato Moteado]

37. yeah, with the bird right up to the screen

i wouldn't have thought the screen would be rendered invisible.

[2naSalit]

41. It all depends.

It really depends on the screen, distance of subject and the lens. For me it's 50/50 so I try to avoid those shots... but I still try on occasion.

[Backseat Driver]

17. Very nice photo -

You do know that DU has a member themed photo contest. Don't recall others you may have posted, but I'd sure love see more. (for encouragement). Perhaps a photograph group member can assist you for those. I sure hope to see more of your shots.

[Gato Moteado]

23. hey there.....thanks....yes, i know about the contest.....

.....but i'm happy just to watch it from the sidelines.

i've been posting photos in this group for years. i live in costa rica so most of my photos are wildlife shots. here are a few to give you an idea of what i do:









































here are some shots from the US:

[TeamProg]

26. Fantastic! In the true meaning of the word. nt

[Gato Moteado]

38. thanks....but i'm not quite there yet

even tho i studied film photography in college in the 1980s and had been shooting for decades, i took a long hiatus from it and only got back into it seriously in the last 4 or 5 years. the weak link for me, at the moment, is post production. i plan to do some online training to improve that part.

[Callalily]

18. Amazing photo!

And thanks for the description of camera settings!

[Gato Moteado]

39. thank you...as always, you are too kind!

normally, if you're shooting birds (and most other wildlife with a telephoto lens) you want to shoot wide open anyway...even if the animal is not captive with cage material to shoot through, there are branches, and foliage and other distractions that you want to render out of focus.

i can't remember which camera you had, but next time you go out to photograph birds, set the aperture to wide open (the smallest number) and set the camera to single point auto focus area mode and place the focus point somewhere near the center of the frame.....then when you see a bird within shooting distance, place that focus point over the eye, acquire focus and shoot.

when you shoot wide open, you're getting very little depth of field (range in front of and behind the subject that will be in reasonable focus) so you want to be dead on with the focal plane, and that's why you want to use single point auto focus area mode (instead of letting the camera decide where to focus)....the newer mirrorless cameras have animal eye detection AF area mode....i haven't tried it yet on my camera.

[Callalily]

44. Thanks for the information! Much appreciated.

[HAB911]

42. Spectacular, as usual! Nice job!

[Gato Moteado]

45. thank you