Eagles Hiding in Files

NorthernFocus

Doing some cleanup of files and ran across a few eagle captures from last summer that I never got around to processing. I had just picked one or two of the best images and never finished culling and processing the rest. Here are a couple that I had skipped over because they needed a little more post work. It was tough shooting that day. It was early morning and the sun was out so the birds were flying in and out of the shadow of a wooded hill as they fished. Net result is that exposure was off on all of these and they took a good bit of correction which is why I skipped over them the first time through.


Nikon D200 w/Sigma 100-300 HSM

1/2000s f/8.0 at 300.0mm iso500


1/1600s f/8.0 at 280.0mm iso500


1/1600s f/8.0 at 280.0mm iso500


Still got a couple of more worth working but I'm outta steam :dunno

bhowdy

Dan,
Wonderful images .... I guess when you are in Alaska the eagles are like the sparrows here in east Tennessee.... ho hum, there goes another one!

I like the 2nd one the best.

lisap

So beautiful! Thanks for sharing these. I love the 2nd and 3rd ones the best.

-- Lisa P.

[Deleted User]

All are nice captures but #2 gets my vote for best of show.

NorthernFocus

bhowdy wrote:

.... I guess when you are in Alaska the eagles are like the sparrows here in east Tennessee.... ho hum, there goes another one!

Not quite... although my wife feels that way. She doens't understand my fascination with photographing them. We're originally from back east and there weren't any back when we lived there. So I never get tired of seeing them. But I do restrict my captures to birds in the wild. Nobody can tell the difference but it makes it more interesting for me

Than again that's also why I don't have any closeups

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm not sure what was going on with that bird in the second shot. As you might imagine making such a splash made it miss the fish. They normally demonstrate much better control like this image that I posted in another thread a while back:

digital2006

Beautiful in flight captures...Well focused and great detail.
Nicely done.

Corehead

That middle image: dinner AND a bath. Woo-hoooooo!:lol

But that first image of that hard bank to the left: that ROCKS!

Steve-o

jonh68

Great pictures!

Now I wish I didn't see them because it makes me want the Siggy 100-300 that much more. I like using the 2.8 variety, but I want something lighter so I can go ninja style.

NorthernFocus

Thanks for the comments, folks. I like the first image too, Steve. The light reflecting under the wings is a bit weird but I like it. But that's not a hard bank. Check this one if you want to see one banking.

John, I've taken a lot of photos with the 100-300 and it does pretty good. Focuses super fast and it pretty sharp. The only drawback is that the bokeh can get kind of funky. I pretty routinely alter the background blur in PP. Also I bought a 1.4x TC thinking I'd stretch it a bit but IQ dropped of significantly.

Corehead

You know, capturing reflected light off the ripples on the eagle wings like that was probably unexpected to you. Weird? :nah Nahhh! I'd call it novel, unique, different.

And "different is good"!

I checked out the other shot. Yep. That'd be one of those 10-G hard banks...in a fighter jet, of course!

Steve-o

articblooms wrote:

Thanks for the comments, folks. I like the first image too, Steve. The light reflecting under the wings is a bit weird but I like it. But that's not a hard bank. Check this one if you want to see one banking.

John, I've taken a lot of photos with the 100-300 and it does pretty good. Focuses super fast and it pretty sharp. The only drawback is that the bokeh can get kind of funky. I pretty routinely alter the background blur in PP. Also I bought a 1.4x TC thinking I'd stretch it a bit but IQ dropped of significantly.

roentarre

Such a stunning series of photos

dbaker1221

glad you found these......love the 2nd shot:ivar

Maestro

I sure would like to find these hiding in my files. Well done.

NorthernFocus

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Boy I'm glad I dug these out and reworked them Sounds like the general consensus favors the shot of the splashdown.

It's thirty below today :cry Since I won't be doing any shooting any time soon I better go root around my hard drive a little more

grimace

Jim K wrote:

All are nice captures but #2 gets my vote for best of show.

I couldn't agree more. Great job!!

Corehead

Thirty below? Must be having a heat wave up there! :whew

articblooms wrote:

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Boy I'm glad I dug these out and reworked them Sounds like the general consensus favors the shot of the splashdown.

It's thirty below today :cry Since I won't be doing any shooting any time soon I better go root around my hard drive a little more

Thwack

Nice holiday leftovers!!

I love the pic of the eagle dragging it's butt on the water making a big splash. You can just hear it saying, "I meant to do that"...

NorthernFocus

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Oh and the "rank camera-teur" is pretty catchy

Thwack

articblooms wrote:

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Oh and the "rank camera-teur" is pretty catchy

Thanks. I wondered sometimes if anybody ever catches subtle humor hidden like that.

leahe

Wow, must be nice to find images like these just hiding out. Gorgeous! I didn't get to see the numerous eagles when I was in Alaska in late August 2006. I should have went to Homer. Thanks for sharing these. Feel free to share anymore 'forgotten' shots. I love finding those!

raptorcaptor

Excellent set Dan!

Ric Grupe

Don't ya' just love it when you go back and find a few more gems?!

I've even found ones that were better in some aspects than my original selections.

f/8 and ISO 500 seems to be a sweet setting for in flight shots with good light.

Darn good shots, Dan.

NorthernFocus

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Ric Grupe wrote:

Don't ya' just love it when you go back and find a few more gems?!

I've even found ones that were better in some aspects than my original selections.

f/8 and ISO 500 seems to be a sweet setting for in flight shots with good light.

Darn good shots, Dan.

Yes, Ric, if you look at test data, f/8 is usually a good sharp aperture for most tele lenses. Plus it gives enough DOF to get both wingtips in focus in most situations but keeps a decent bokeh. Up here even in clear weather we rarely get "f/16" lighting conditions. So in order to keep shutter speed high enough to eliminate wing blur I'm usually shooting higher ISOs.

It is nice going back through files and working on images that were passed over the first time. Plus as one's PS skills improve it's worth going back and revisiting some of those that were culled for exposure issues. That was the case with these. They were all underexposed so I set them aside and just worked on the ones that only required "normal" PP.

Harryb

Excellent captures, espcially #2.

NorthernFocus

Thanks, Harry. Only four more months of snow and it'll be time to capture some new ones