I have viewed this particular photo many, many times through my viewfinder. For years. It’s a favorite resting perch for Bald Eagles, Hawks and other birds of prey. A wonderful spot to see all around and “hunt”. There are a very large number of pixels on my hard drives of this shot with multiple views of many birds. Even posted a couple of shots. This week I found myself stopping and shooting here again. A little different this time. First the bird is unusual. It’s not a young Bald Eagle rather it’s a Golden Eagle. How do I know? They are larger and dominant to the Bald Eagle. Just before I took this photograph there was three Bald Eagles perched there. Then this giant Golden flew in and decided he liked the perch. The Bald’s ditched it quickly and flew away in different directions. Rarely do I center a subject in a photograph. Consciencely or sub-consciencely centering a subject doesn’t feel right to me when composing a photograph. In this case it seemed to work for me.
Another unique thing about this photo is the clouds and snow on the mountains. It screamed black and white! The placement of the clouds, their texture and the dynamic range was appealing to me.
Captured the pixels, ran them through Silver Efex pro2. Did some slight dodging and burning also.
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Nikon D3s, 200-400mm VR, 1.7 teleconverter, f.4 at 1/4500 second, ISO 200.