Regal Eagle

 This is an African Fish Eagle, this species of eagle lives in Africa and feeds on fish, in case that needed clarification :)

Its range is across sub Saharan Africa wherever there are large bodies of open water. It is the national bird of Namibia and Zambia.

From the first picture as it launches itself from the tree it is quite deceptive in that this is a really large bird, with a wingspan of up to 2.8m (9 feet) it is incredible that it is so manoeuvrable is such a tight space. Once in flight it is agile and graceful and a really beautiful sight. At one point during the display it swooped between myself and my mum, its wings tucked in with mere millimetres from each of our heads.

At rest on a post having snacked on a dead chick it struck a fantastic pose and fixed me with an intense stare as I looked at it through my camera's lens.

My favourite images are the second and fourth. On the second one as well as converting it to black and white which works really well I have tried out the newest update to the masking tool in Adobe Lightroom, this is not something I have tried before and I am really happy with the result. It is now in my list of all time favourite pictures.

Marco Polo

Could this be a winner?

That's not for me to say but this is the image that has been selected for the Williamson Gallery Open Exhibition 2019.  I was disappointed that the image I shared yesterday wasn't selected as well but I think this was definitely the better of the two images and I am really really happy with this. 

It is yet another of my Reflections of Venice series and I have titled this picture Marco Polo because it is a reflection of the exterior signage to the Margo Polo glass works on Murano.

I love the random shapes, the loops and whorls, I love the green of the water and I love the writing that draws you in. 

I hope that you love this image as much as I do and I hope that it is well received by the judges and visitors to the exhibition, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.