Eagles...

ront

This time of year, we have some Eagles that come to the area and feed on Salmon. There are not huge amounts of the birds, but enough that it peaks the interest of a lot of people around here.
I went out this past Saturday with my Sony a700 and a Tamron 200-500 lens. I have never shot with this large of a lens before and have much to learn about it. I thought that I had some pretty good pics, but found a lot of them not so good. It was a very cold and overcast day. I should have upped the ISO a bit and used a faster shutter speed, but you live and learn.
Here are a few that I took
PLEASE, I would very much appreciate any feedback and tips for improvement on my next outing.

Thanks, Ron

Probably my best one of the day.


I sure wish these had been more in focus!!








I think(?) that you can see the Salmon in the water here just before it was grabbed.

luisv

Hi Ron,

Too bad there wasn't more light to get better captures of these birds.

Anyway, I noticed you used a very low shutter speed on these shots (1/80).
This is ok if you want get good wing and background blurs, but it's very hard to synchronize the camera with the bird to avoid motion blur.

In such weather, I would recommend increasing the ISO to around 1600.
I've used my A700 at that ISO and the results were ok.
I would also set the camera to shutter priority and leave it at a speed of 1/1250 or higher to avoid motion blur.

Good luck on your next outing,
--
Luis

ront

Thanks Luis!! I will be making changes like you suggest on my next outing!!

Ron

FlyNavy

I love the first photo!