Thanks for sharing this image, Harvey. I've hesitated to comment because I know that I would not likely have done this well myself. It's one of the reasons I seldom summon the patience necessary for wildlife photography, especially of the avian variety. That said, in one of our image review sessions during our "Autumn Colors - Adirondack Style" workshop last month you made a point of telling us that you would appreciate the constructive review of images you post on your blog.

As you know from experience, image review sessions are well received during my workshops. I think that's largely because of where we focus our attention. We begin with what we like about an image and then move on to what we might want to do differently presented with the same or similar opportunity in the future.

In this case, I like the way you have positioned the eagle in the left third of the frame, leaving plenty of room for it to "fly into" the open space to the right. I also like that I can see the eagle's eye and that there's a sense of motion because of the blur of the background.

If this were my image and I was looking forward to a future opportunity, there are a couple of things I might want to do. One would be to practice panning. For the more experienced bird photographers, panning may seem simple enough. But, it's a learned skill that takes practice. And, it's also something we can practice in a local park or even in some of our backyards with whatever birds we have available. I'm not experienced enough with this kind of photography to know what the best shutter speed might be. A shutter speed of 1/1500 sec. seems like it's fast, but I'm thinking a bit faster SS might eliminate some of the softness in a photo like this.

A mantra of most wildlife photographers is "focus on the eye(s)". If the eyes are in sharp focus we can more easily accept softness elsewhere in our subject.

I don't know where you were standing so I don't know what effect that might have had on this image. Obviously, if you will be standing in a boat that is bobbing up and down, a shutter speed even faster than your 1/1500 sec. may be needed. I also don't know how far you are from your subject, either. You may have been far enough from your subject that, even at 400 mm (not really long in the wildlife/bird photography community), you may have been forced to significantly crop your image to allow for the prominence your eagle deserved. Bringing a 500 mm, 600 mm or even longer lens to the party might be out of the questions unless you are willing to rent such a lens. But the longer lens would help mitigate significant cropping.

As I mentioned in my email to you recently, I am adding an image review to my newsletter and I appreciate that you have given me the okay to make this review one of the first for the newsletter. The newsletter will share your image with subscribers to "f/8 insights." So, if any of your followers would like to have the opportunity to have images reviewed I hope you will encourage them to subscribe, it's FREE. All they have to do is go to my website (www.TomDwyerPhotography.com) and click on the "f/8 insights" link at the bottom of the page.

I hope these thoughts prove helpful, my friend.

I wish I could fly like that! Beautiful shot Harvey! ♥️

Bird in flight, Harvey's got him in sight - for an excellent shot.

Wonderful shot.
Lynne