Bald Eagle with Clipped Wings, Alaska

Long ago, I made several trips to Homer, Alaska, to photograph bald eagles.  While I deleted many of them afterwards, I have a lot left that I’ve never done anything with.  Here’s one of those photos.  I probably deleted a lot of photos like this one then, but for some reason I hadn’t deleted this photo even though the wings were clipped.  The other day I was going through those old images to see if there was one I would want to process or “post-process,” as they say.  I chose this one thinking that I could possibly use the crop tool to build new wing tips given the improvements Adobe has made to Photoshop.  So, after I darkened the sky a bit in Adobe Camera Raw and opened the image in Photoshop, I grabbed the crop tool, pulled the sides outward a bit, selected “Generative Expand,” and got the image below.  A nice advancement in Photoshop, in my opinion.

I know there are some who don’t approve of such advancements in image processing, but I’m in favor of them for the most part.  Nature photography doesn’t need to be limited to the documentary style necessary for news events as long as you don’t violate any rules, such as in photo contests.  What I can’t stand though are images where it’s obvious someone started with a blank screen and just typed in words to create a scene that never existed.  Lions seem to be very popular for that on Facebook.  They are always so obvious.  I’m waiting for someone to type something like:  “Create three male lions standing side by side looking at the ‘camera’ with two more male lions standing side by side on the shoulders of the first three lions and looking at the ‘camera’ with a sixth male lion standing on the shoulders of the previous two male lions and also looking at the ‘camera,’ cheerleader style.”