close-up portrait of a bald eagle...you need to see this and here is why! [View all]

i was probably about 8 feet away from this bird, which was in an aviary at a raptor rescue center and there was a thick gauge screen between us. the amazing part is that the bird was only a few inches behind the screen. i used my nikon Z8 with the 300mm f/4 PF lens shot wide open at f/4. miraculously, even though the bird was so close to the screen, it was rendered so out of focus that it became invisible. this is common when the subject is farther back from the screen or bars at a zoo but i wouldn't have imagined it with the subject almost up to the screen.

P.S. there was nothing i could do about his feather sticking out of his nostril.



here is the screen on the front of the aviary: