Oh. My. God. Truly one of the most breathtaking photos I have seen not only on this site, but ever. The framing of the bird on top of the clouds is perfect. The sun breaking through the sky is stunning. The color balance and use of depth and shadows is unreal. Absolutely incredible. You must have been really excited when you captured that!

Truly amazing. I would really really like to see the original picture (before post-processing). Thanks in advance!

WOW, thank you so much! Like I said, sometimes luck is on your side. Photos opportunities like these don't come around often.

I'm with musicalDOPE; this shot is stunning. I thought "This has to be fake!", but it sure doesn't look like a fake. It looks like a great shot. Nice work, Mkaldani. I wish I had your luck!

How did it happen? i.e. were you skydiving, on a cliff, just pointing your camera at the sky?

I love it too. (whether fake or not) My son is convinced that the falcon must have been photographed in a flight aviary at a zoo and then photoshopped onto a background of clouds. Was it? Either way - it's fantastic work - and even photographing a falcon like that in a flight aviary is no mean feat!

Although this image has been photoshopped I very much enjoy this wallpaper. The light is awesome and the blurry background really pulls the spot on the hawk. I've been waiting a long time for a wallpaper like this!

You could have been a little bit more careful masking the hawk (beginning of right wing is a little edged). Furthermore, you missed a spot on the left wing (white spot). Still, a very beautiful wallpaper that I enjoy on both my workplace and at home.

Love all the comments...the background and falcon are real and happened at the same time. The only thing that is not in this picture that was in the original was a creance. I had a friend who worked at a wildlife center and he was out on a cloudy day flying it...believe it or not it took a while to get this photo to be this clean and not much photoshop was used, but both background and falcon are real. Thanks for all the comments!

I thought it,s fake and I even did not want to download it. But now that You say it's real I must say it's unbelievable! It's perfect!

I have only one word to say that is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike is telling the truth about the falcon. It was cared for by me at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley after having been severely injured by electrocution on a PG&E power line. After waiting a full year for it's feathers to grow back, it's flight muscles were weak, so I had to take it out for flight exercise. I invited mike to take some pictures. What Mike edited out was a thin orange line attached to it's ankles and he added some color filters to the image. If I'm not mistaken, the image is cropped from the original as well, but other than that, it is absolutely real - and an amazing shot.