Photo by Beth Rodda
Osprey chick
Osprey build nests on almost every power pole around Lake Berryessa in Napa County, California. I’ve been shooting this particular nest for years. It’s situated off a bridge, which gives you an eye level view into the nest. This year I was able to catch the chicks early on. This chick just popped up to ask where his morning fish was.
Post processing notes:
Even with a 600 mm + 2X converter I had to crop in to get the mother, chick portrait. From there I used no noise to reduce background noise, dynamic contrast at about 80% to enhance feather detain, and masked in color enhance "autumn" to accentuate the eye color of mother and chick. I elected to keep the overall warm tone that the very early (6:30 AM) morning sun produced. Shot with a Nikon Z8 with the 180-600 mm + 2X converter. 1/2000 @f13, 4500 ISOExif information:
| Copyright: | Beth Rodda |
| Camera: | NIKON Z 8 |
| Aperture: | f/13 |
| Focal Length: | 1200mm |
| ISO: | 4500 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/2000 sec. |
| Created: | May 27, 2026 06:27:47 |