Sarita Yeola  


Building a Nest: by Sarita Yeola

May 2022 - Building a Nest:

About the Image(s)

Building a Nest: On a walk along the Chattahoochee river wetlands I saw an Osprey at a distance carrying something that looked like dirt in its talon and disappear into the distance behind the trees line along the wetlands. I was a little disappointed that I was so far away and couldn't take any good photos. But on my return trip from the walk I saw an Osprey coming from the direction that the first one had disappeared. As I focused on the bird with my camera it landed on the bank, picked up something and headed off in the same direction that it had come from. This time I took a few photos, one of which is this photo. Maybe it is building a nest somewhere. I cropped the photo and used topaz DeNoise and sharpen for the final image.

Nikon D500: 500mm, 1/1250, f7.1, ISO 640


This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted




Judy Haran   Judy Haran
This is Osprey season. Nice capture of the bird. He is very clear with your lower shutter speed and ISO. How did you decide on these settings? With the same equipment I tend to go higher as I am still learning these settings.

I can see a white line along the feather edge. Is this fringing or just the way the feathers appear?   Posted: 05/09/2022 10:46:27



Sherry Icardi   Sherry Icardi
Nice time of year to capture Osprey with nesting so active. I see what Judy is talking about but my thought was it was the side lighting that caused that white line. I went back and looked through my images and depending on the way light is hitting and the bird, I do have a white rim on some of my osprey shots.

I mostly use my R7r4 for birds in flight and its a 65mb file so I can crop in a lot and get a reasonable image. If you're using a teleconverter you have no options sometimes but to shoot at 7.1. In fact if I use a tele on my Sony 100-400, I have to go up to 8.0 since I loose 2 stops of light. So lots of variables.

That discussion aside I like the image and the only thing I might suggest is if you have enough pixels which with the 23 mp Nikon you may not, depending on how much cropping you have already done, I might not leave as much space to the right. but that is just my thoughts...what you've got is nice and tells a story. Nice job!   Posted: 05/11/2022 17:52:32



Leslie Larson   Leslie Larson
Great shot. Can't imagine how you got the wings in such focus with a 1/250 shutter speed. Good work.   Posted: 05/12/2022 10:48:47
Sherry Icardi   Sherry Icardi
Leslie it is actually 1/1250. You are correct, getting crisp wings at 1/250 would be impossible. You just missed the 1 in front of 250.   Posted: 05/13/2022 15:06:51
Leslie Larson   Leslie Larson
oops, shouldn't skim   Posted: 05/13/2022 20:05:37



Peter Dominowski   Peter Dominowski
Hi Sarita:

I agree with what has been said by everyone else, I'd just add that while the eyes of the bird are clearly visible, the photo looks under-exposed to my eyes.

I'm guessing that the light was coming from the back and opposite side of the bird?   Posted: 05/17/2022 14:14:01



Donald Dunn   Donald Dunn
Awesome bird in flight. Do you find it difficult to photo stationary birds after capturing such a great BIF image?   Posted: 05/27/2022 15:00:03