Eagle.. the hard way !!

PrescottPhotog

Good Morning..

Well it's 4:30 am and I'm having some coffee before heading out to try and capture some shots of the many eagles that keep tormenting me. We've had 7 eagles at the lakes over the last week or so, that's like 6 more than normal at any given time of the year. Last week I counted 3 Juvie, 1 Immature and 3 adults all hunting in a group. They have been hanging out just far enough away to tease me and drive me crazy.

Yesterday (22 degrees and blowing wind) I decided that if they wouldn't come to me I would go to them. So I got to the lake just at daybreak and climbed the boulders and found a spot to hide near the two huge dead trees where they like to hang out. This area is almost unaccessible and is very dangerous to try and climb in hiking gear let alone with about 50 pounds of pack and camera gear on my tired old frame. It overlooks the whole lake, a beautiful view, but I froze my butt off. My teeth were chattering by the time I came down at noon and I was dresses for the cold.

Well luckily the eagles came and this one (a mom I think because she was screaming at a Juvie who was circling high above the lake) decided to land in the farthest of the two trees from me. She only stayed while I got 5 quick shots. I didn't know what lens to take (to much or to little zoom) so I took my 300mm with 1.4 extender on. I had to shoot through the dead branches but I got a couple that made the trip worth while. Hope you like them.

I'm off to try again this morning..

#1


#2

KurtPreston

I like 'em both! Good detail It's about time here to go harass the eagle pair nearby the house.

David L. Megahey

Two good captures I have a question or two that you may be able to help me with. 1, how far away were you when you took your shot? 2, are you using auto focus? I ask because there are a couple of eagles on the Verde River down here that I've been trying to get a chrisp shot of. I'm using a 30D with a 70-300mm, tripod and remote fire. The clearity just isn't there....distance is 297'. Any comments or ideas would help. Tkanks

PrescottPhotog

KurtPreston wrote:

I like 'em both! Good detail It's about time here to go harass the eagle pair nearby the house.

Hi Kurt, Thanks for the comments. These guys won't be around long, they'll either move on or go to nest which will keep them far away until May or June when they bring the young ones out for a tour.

SciurusNiger

#1 is really good! A fine example of stick-picking (which is tough stuff).

Jane1980

Very nice!

PrescottPhotog

David L. Megahey wrote:

Two good captures I have a question or two that you may be able to help me with. 1, how far away were you when you took your shot? 2, are you using auto focus? I ask because there are a couple of eagles on the Verde River down here that I've been trying to get a chrisp shot of. I'm using a 30D with a 70-300mm, tripod and remote fire. The clearity just isn't there....distance is 297'. Any comments or ideas would help. Tkanks

Hi Dave, Thanks for your comments. I looked when I was out there today and I was a good 100+ yards away (guessing). I was shooting a Mark III on a monopod, autofocus center point (trifocals make it hard for me to manually focus), 400 ISO, center weighted metering.. using a 300mm 2.8 with a 1.4 extender hooked on which gave me about 420mm not counting the 1.3 crop factor for the sensor.

From these distances even my Mark III doesn't focus very well on dark colored birds if there is no contrast for the sensors to accurately lock on to (especially so at the distance you are shooting from), so I try to get some part of the autofocus on the white feathers or the whole head. It doesn't always work as you can see below and from the distance I shot from the AF point almost covers half the bird. I probably got a better focus on the branches (light color) than the bird and the bird was just in the DOF.

Here is the full shot reduced but not cropped from the original RAW file.. It isn't very good because to get the AF points I had to do a screen shot from the RAW file but it gives you an idea. I caught the white but caught the branches too.

NorthernFocus

David L. Megahey wrote:

Two good captures I have a question or two that you may be able to help me with. 1, how far away were you when you took your shot? 2, are you using auto focus? I ask because there are a couple of eagles on the Verde River down here that I've been trying to get a chrisp shot of. I'm using a 30D with a 70-300mm, tripod and remote fire. The clearity just isn't there....distance is 297'. Any comments or ideas would help. Tkanks

At that distance you would have to be WAY out of focus for that to be the problem. With a 30D and 300mm at f5.6 your DOF at 300 ft extends from about 26ft in front of target to 36ft beyond target (calculated DOF values). And of course at higher f-stops it goes up from there. If the camera is indicating focus lock, you may want to consider the other possibilities that can effect image sharpness at that distance (shutter speed vs subject motions/camera shake, inherent lens IQ, atmospheric conditions, etc.)

Regarding the OP... nice shots

PrescottPhotog

SciurusNiger wrote:

#1 is really good! A fine example of stick-picking (which is tough stuff).

Hi, Thanks for viewing and for your comments.

PrescottPhotog

Jane1980 wrote:

Very nice!

Hi Jane, Thanks for viewing.

PrescottPhotog

articblooms wrote:

Regarding the OP... nice shots

Thanks for viewing and comments.

Shades of Hyperion

These shots are truly breathtaking, and thanks for sharing the info that went into getting the shots.

Steve

Maestro

Way to persevere Chris! Your actions were well rewarded. Two nice images of a momma!

Thwack

Both are very nice shots. The first one looks like Mama is about to smack one of the juvies for something they're doing...she's got her eye locked hard one somebody that's not behaving right...

David L. Megahey

Chris & Dan, thanks for the info, I'll see if I can use it this afternoon.

PrescottPhotog

Shades of Hyperion wrote:

These shots are truly breathtaking, and thanks for sharing the info that went into getting the shots. Steve

Thanks for you comments Steve, much appreciated.

PrescottPhotog

Maestro wrote:

Way to persevere Chris! Your actions were well rewarded. Two nice images of a momma!

Thanks Stephen. I didn't get any shots yesterday but I watched as Momma sat on the rocks and screamed commands to the Juvie that was hunting and soaring over the lake. The young ones work so hard at trying to capture a duck.. and I've never seen them successful.

It was like last years when I watch the Juvie chase the Seagull for so long they were both so tired they couldn't fly any more. The Seagull was dead in the water and if the eagle had one more ounce of strength left the gull was his.. but he just couldn't do it. He sat on the rocks for about 30 minutes catching his breath and then left.

PrescottPhotog

Thwack wrote:

Both are very nice shots. The first one looks like Mama is about to smack one of the juvies for something they're doing...she's got her eye locked hard one somebody that's not behaving right...

Hi Thwack.. they don't take their eye off of them for long, to many ways they could get in a jam.
Thanks for you comments.

coscorrosa

The end result was definitely worth the effort, those are beautiful shots.

PrescottPhotog

coscorrosa wrote:

The end result was definitely worth the effort, those are beautiful shots.

Thanks Ron, The fun part of this location is that I am high enough to be shooting almost level with the top of this old (and tall) dead tree. The eagle is sitting on the very top branches and it looks like I am looking down on her. The Falcon shots (other post) I moved down a bit to hide better but it still puts me at almost eye level with whatever lands in the tree. This gives some great perspectives. The bad thing is that if something doesn't land in the tree there is absolutely nothing to shoot for 5 hours of sitting because there is nothing but rock and two dead trees way above the lake (that's why the eagles love it). Plus.. the worst thing is that from where I am hiding I can't see anything coming until it is right next to the tree so you have to sit almost perfectly still the whole time. I never saw the eagle coming, it came swooping up from behind the rocks. One second it wasn't there, then it was, then it was gone.

Harryb

Good captures Chris. You would think that after all your effort that darn eagle could have landed in front of those branches.