Bald Eagle

Jeffro · December 27, 2013

I ventured over to the dam on the Rock River in Oregon IL today to see if any Bald Eagles were around. Turns out there were 15 or more, which is more than I have ever seen in December....if not ever.

Canon 7D, ISO 200, 600mm (Canon 300L f/4 w/2x), F/8 @ 1/1000, manual focus, hand held.

I waited for an hour hoping that bird would fly, but no dice, he never moved. I wanted an awesome in flight shot, coming at me, but they all seemed to fly away from me today. Oh well, I'll be back.

Here is the gallery, if you're interested: Eagles at the dam.

Jeffro · December 28, 2013

Not that anyone cares ( :giggle ), but I ventured back out to view the Bald Eagles today, hoping I'd get some in flight shots....thankfully I did.

All my shots from today can be seen HERE.

Stumblebum · December 28, 2013

First, I am impressed by the first shot! Then I was even more impressed when I read that you got the first one hand held and with manual focus! I am sure you are glad it hung around while you were adjusting your Bazooka pointed in its direction!

My only input would that first one is pretty damn sharp so there might be opportunity to do the horizontal crop on it. I think it would make it even better and if it stops looking sharp you can delete it.

Cheers!
Taz

Jeffro · December 28, 2013

Thanks....you asked for it, you got it.

I do wish I had a 400L instead of having to put a 2x extender on my 70-200L, or 300L...my 300L just wasn't quite long enough by its self for me. I'm thinking a 1.4 extender on the 300 might be a good investment, so I still have auto focus. Today I was able to get a bit closer to the birds than I was yesterday, so 400mm was working.

Stumblebum · December 29, 2013

First, to me the horizontal image is amazing! Still sharp and looks way better!

Focus will remain an issue even if you got 12,000 dollar 600mm F4 lens. At that zoom it has hard time figuring out which subject to focus on.

With 1.4 extender auto-focus may work more often but it not a guarantee. You still need bright light at at least F4 lens to put it on.

You did great with manual! But for birds in flight, you can imagine that is simply not possible. So it is a trade off. Extenders are great if you don't have to crop out the image and subjects are relative still. Otherwise you have to stick with auto-focus.

That is what I know so far.....if I learn anything knew I shall post it!

Jeffro · December 29, 2013

Stumblebum wrote: »

First, to me the horizontal image is amazing! Still sharp and looks way better!

Focus will remain an issue even if you got 12,000 dollar 600mm F4 lens. At that zoom it has hard time figuring out which subject to focus on.

With 1.4 extender auto-focus may work more often but it not a guarantee. You still need bright light at at least F4 lens to put it on.

You did great with manual! But for birds in flight, you can imagine that is simply not possible. So it is a trade off. Extenders are great if you don't have to crop out the image and subjects are relative still. Otherwise you have to stick with auto-focus.

That is what I know so far.....if I learn anything knew I shall post it!

Odd's are I'll get a 1.4 extender for the 300L f/4, eventually. The 300L is a pretty sharp lens, and I think the next time I go to the dam I'm going to just take the 300L, and force myself to shoot with it. I know I can always crop a shot, but I prefer not to, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Thanks for the feedback.

Bald Eagle

Comments