Photo of eagle on Fort Snelling gravestone touches hearts, goes viral

Star Tribune ^ | August 10, 2011 | JON TEVLIN

[DManA]

Talk to anyone in my business and they'll all say the same thing: No matter how long you write stories and put them in the newspaper, you are never really sure which ones are going to strike a nerve.

[snip]

Requests for the photo, and use of the story, have come from the Department of Veterans Affairs, military publications, Arlington National Cemetery. Soldiers in Afghanistan have inquired about the photo, including some from the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division, stationed at Bagram Airfield.

"I sent a good-sized one to a base in Afghanistan because they wanted to build a memorial to members of their unit who had been killed," Glick said.

This letter, from Atlanta, was typical:

"You have no idea just how much this photo and story mean to so many of us who have served. We do not ask for special treatment; we do not ask for your gratitude; we don't even ask for your patience when we occasionally 'geeze' with old stories. We would like to have some understanding just how much service to this great nation means to each of us. Your picture and story show me that some do understand."

[more at link]

[DManA]

One makes you ask - is it all worth it?

The other answers - hell yes.

[PA Engineer]

I have seen them often in my travels at ground level and even found these fellows floating on an ice flow last July in Alaska.

[ConradofMontferrat]

I have photos of FG from another source. I have to run right now and don’t have time to bother with photobucke, but the bottom line is this:

One of us is right, at this point, I don’t know which one. If it IS a digital camera, (unlikely) then you may have point. (although that doesn’t mean the image is fake.)

If its a 35mm, then its a settled issue. Negatives don’t lie unless its a stuffed bird.

Sorry I have to leave it hanging right now, but I’ll be in touch!

Have a good weekend.

[Pan_Yan]

*

[angcat]

Sad :0(

[wxgesr]

Beautiful and moving, thanks for posting!

[two23]

You too Conrado-—FReegards...

[razorback-bert]

I have seen them on beach in Juneau, Alaska

[TheOldLady]

We wish it grew there
Please Donate

[free_life]

I have seen lots of eagles on the ground eating. Just saw one sitting on a deer on the side of the road, eating it. I assume the deer was hit by a car yet it was 100 feet from road, so either it ran a little before dropping or the eagle dragged it away from road.

[Beowulf9]

Thank you. Fabulous story and picture.

[Kartographer]

To those worried about if the picture was faked or not:

Hub:"Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in."
From the movie 'Secondhand Lions' (2003)

To me you either believe in what the picture represents or you don't. If you believe then the picture is awesome, if you don't then it really doesn't matter if its fake or not.

[Sawdring]

The glow just to the right of the eagle makes it look photshopped.

[beaversmom]

Glbal Warming! Sad those birds stuck out there on the ice like that. ;)

[justa-hairyape]

Which means 35mm NEGATIVES. At least 60 of them. As far as I know, you can’t alter a negative with photoshop or any off the shelf software.

Been done for years in Hollywood. There are film printing devices that print digital images to film. Forget what they are called, but back in the early 90's a company out of the Midwest made them. Basically you inserted a camera onto the device. It printed whatever electronic image you sent it, onto the film negative. So for at least about 20 years, film negatives have been prove of nothing. The reason Hollywood did this was to splice a few graphically modified images back into a roll of film.

BTW - It looks real to me. Lighting is correct. Shadows are correct. Do not know why there is artifacts around the edges of the feathers, but my guess would be something could have occurred during the film scanning process.

Disclaimer - Never did any production myself. Just kept the equipment running. That film printing device was not my responsibility.

[PA Engineer]

The glow just to the right of the eagle makes it look photshopped.

I have had similar effects when I have taken my camera from an air-conditioned vehicle and opened the lens cover on a humid day. Usually this happens when I don't have time to warm it and want to capture a live action event.

[PA Engineer]

;-)

[max americana]

Dude, I’m cool with you being a photoshop expert et al, but this is one picture that MAY BE photoshopped but at the very least, it doesn’t piss me off and emotionally patriotic...unlike a “birth certificate” waved around by a lying, POS president claiming it to be the real BC months back.

[Hot Tabasco]

Neat picture, but I don’t think it’s real.

I read the article and the photographer said he took many photos from different angles and that this was the best one. I've seen eagles too, never perching that low and they certainly don't hang around when a human is in close proximity to take the photos "from all angles" that he claims..........

I don't think it's real either.....

[Hot Tabasco]

Neat picture, but I don’t think it’s real.

In a related article, the photographer said he was following a crow that was flying eratically when he spotted the eagle.

I'm kind of a wildlife buff and if that eagle was indeed there, that crow would have called in a flock of his buddies and they would have tormented that eagle until they drove it out of the county........

I've seen them do that countless times. I'll see a red tail hawk soaring then from out of the nearby woods will come a crow cawing and heading straight for the hawk then before you know it there's a flock of them........