Another Osprey shot

[BrianA61]

Was out on my duck hunting grounds just wandering around last week. There are a lot of nesting Osprey this time of year. I saw this one land on top of this power pole, so I drove slowly and stopped just the other side of the pole. I got out and leaned as far over the levy as I could and got a couple of shots. The good news is I was relatively close. The bad news is that I couldn't get enough separation from the very distracting power line the bird was sitting next to. It is also difficult to do PP with such a high contrast. Bright overcast for the background and a dark bird. An added bonus was to have it with a partially eaten fish in its talons. I didn't even see the fish until I downloaded onto my computer with a bigger screen. I like the shot other than the power line being in the way.

[Wavelength]

Well done...you may clone out the powerline thing, if you want, don't you?

[IzzieK]

I agree with Nandy, Brian...the powerpole thingie can easily be cloned out but that will leave the bird bare with the bland sky so you will have to arrange for some special effects for background or something else. Pretty good shot of the bird. I like it.

[BrianA61]

Well done...you may clone out the powerline thing, if you want, don't you?

Yes, I would like to clone out at least part, if not all of it. However, I am not good at photoshop. I have not used it other than the NIK suite and for combining in HDR.

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[ccphoto]

That's a lot of cloning, content aware fill, etc. Osprey are hunters of opportunity and they love open, high places. This is not an atypical place for an Osprey to feed. Me, I'd leave it alone and simply enjoy the capture.

[bnnrcn]

The osprey with its victim looks really powerful Brian

[AndrewMcD]

I wouldn't clone out the hardware, it's so typical of the Osprey and their bad real estate decisions.

[BrianA61]

That's a lot of cloning, content aware fill, etc. Osprey are hunters of opportunity and they love open, high places. This is not an atypical place for an Osprey to feed. Me, I'd leave it alone and simply enjoy the capture.

That was kind of what my thinking was. I just wish I had been able to get far enough over to separate the bird and hardware a bit more. This area where I duck hunt has quite a few power poles that have extensions above them with platforms on top. Those are specifically for the Ospreys to nest on. There is not one platform around that doesn't have a nest atop it. This particular bird had just landed on this pole that was several down from where a nest was. These birds are thick as thieves around my part of the woods. I see them all the time along with a lot of Bald Eagles too. They are even harder to capture a shot of without a super long lens.

Thanks all, for all the positive feedback.