This was from one of the Des Plaines Camera Club photo shoots in May. HDR with a plug-in filter (Topaz Adjust) added for more details.

Both photo were taken without a tripod available. The Bleeding Hearts was on a walk through the Chicago Botanical Gardens and Eagle taken Tuesday at the Wildlife Prairie Park near Peoria, IL. The Bleeding Hearts was with a 24-105 Canon zoom and the Eagle was taken with a Canon 100-400 Zoom. The Eagle was taken through a chain lock fence. To get the Eagle sharp, I put the focus on manual to avoid the automatic focus picking up the fencing. Both were shot with a high ISO (sensitivity) to get a faster shutter speed.
This image has inspired me to do en entire series of Chicago by Twilight. Again using HDR techniques. The above photo was from 7 different exposures and combined in Photomatix Pro.
A retired music educator now enjoying exhibiting fine art photography.