The sky was mostly covered in clouds yesterday morning at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge when an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) decided to fly right at me after it had caught a fish.
I love the look of a head-on shot of a flying bird, but capturing such a shot is not easy. First, the bird has to cooperate and most of the time, it seems, birds like to fly away from me and not toward me. Secondly, I have to be able to capture and maintain focus on the bird as it is approaching, which can be a challenge with a heavy telephoto zoom lens. Finally, I have to calibrate my shooting speed so that I don’t fill up the buffer of my camera before the bird gets close.
Things worked out pretty well for this shot. If you click on the image and zoom in on it, you will see that I managed to keep those yellow eyes in reasonably sharp focus and even the beak is in focus. You don’t get a very good view of the fish—you will have to wait until I capture of profile shot of an osprey with its catch.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
It’s a magnificent osprey photo.. so dramatic too!
Thanks, Liz. This is the kind of fun photo that I love taking. Initially I was concerned about the overcast conditions, but when I pulled up the image on my computer, I liked the effect of the white background.
What big feet you have! Great shot!
That’s a great photo, Mike. At first I thought it was an illustration. I love the detail, and the little bits of color.
Thanks, Dan. As I mentioned in another response, I was a little disappointed with the cloud cover, but I think it helped to give the image a monochromatic look that helps make those yellow eyes pop even more.
That’s an amazing shot!
I know how difficult it is. You nailed it. White background creates an especially arresting image.
I’d love to take credit for the background, but I was pretty fortunate that it turned out that way, particularly because I would have been shooting almost directly into the sun if it had been shining.
Take credit for getting the shot. There are a lot of shots I never took it because I didn’t like the background. That’s just my peculiarity.
Thanks. My usual approach is to shoot and shoot and later delete as needed.
Yes. That is better than, “Damn! I should’ve taken the shot.”
Great shot, Mike!!
Wow! What an incredible shot. I love that it is almost monochrome as that focuses the attention on that dramatic shape and the action.
Thanks, Laura. It definitely grabs attention. What is amazing is that I didn’t have to do a whole lot of cropping–the osprey was coming pretty fast and by the time I snapped the next shot he was partly out of the frame.
Wow, love the angles!
Benjamin and I were examining this spectacular photo yesterday when we heard the Recycling Truck go down the road. We left to go and complete our weekly neighborhood “civil duty” before commenting. My good intention of returning to comment was lost after we went adventuring for over an hour. Benjamin is here this morning for a short visit and wanted to see the Osprey again. These are this morning’s comments upon reexamining the enlarged photo, much the same as those of yesterday. “Mr. Mike this is the bestest Osprey picture. His wings are humongous and so are his sharp claws. I love his yellow eyes. He looks like he is saying ‘I’m not sharing’!” Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
Great job getting this head on shot, Mike!
Thanks, Ellen. “Normal” people find the image to be cool, but other wildlife photographers really appreciate what it takes to get a shot like that.
Very Nice Mike! Love head on views of birds coming at you!!
Totally amazing shot!
Wow!
Absolutely amazing!