Bald Eagle Strike....

Jelster

Jelster

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Name
Steve
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Last day with the Eagles before we come home, and i'm not happy with my results. Maybe I can't handle the lens or maybe it's my technique in general, but the results have been poor. This is the best of a poor set taken today.

BaldEagle01 by Steve Jelly, on Flickr

The next couple of frames were unusable, but did show the results of the birds efforts.

Steve
 
Don't be too disappointed Steve. You've had a holiday in a nice place with nice scenery and wildlife. Some of us are replying to people from a desktop in an office on the hottest day of the year......:(

My gut reaction to your woes is that you were not close enough to the subject. Nothing to be ashamed of - nature dictates these things. Which camera/lens combo is it?
 
Steve

closer would have been much better, presumably you can swim and these days you can get good waterproof cases for cameras

the image shows lack of detail in the bird - shadows (and highlights) - these can be improved a little in pp, highlights and shadows and maybe a curve adjustment

when you set up for a shot like this it is useful the choose the exposure settings that are good for the bird ........ not letting the settings for the overall composition dominate as it is usually not possible to get both correct in camera ..... and many pros may say don't take a shot like this in those lighting conditions.

I'd just improve the image as best you can in pp ........ review the settings that you used and think about them for next time, (plus also the ones of the images that you felt were poor - BIF shots are difficult) ....... then accept the image as a "record shot" which many of us would have been very happy to see and take.

The pose, action, reflection and bg are good ....... it's a good action shot at a distance


(The Windbag Sailor)
 
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Hey jelster,
I wish I had known you over in BC sooner, I guide to Bald Eagles over there and am just about to sponsor Talk Photography to advertise my trips, but I know a couple of Cracking places where they are close all year round.
Gordon.
 
I wish I could have got closer, but he was on a piece of land that was private, I had to watch from the shore of the inlet. And I agree it's all about exposing for the bird, but I think I need to practice on the Red Kites near home, and work my way up to the faster stuff.

Set up is a 7D Mk1 with a Sigma 150-600 Sport. It's a heavy combo and I was shooting handheld.
 
Captured the moment really well which was a great achievement all things considered. Nothing you can do to get more pixels per bird from your shooting position from the sounds of it. This can limit AF ability and atmospheric effects can.reduce apparent sharpness when shooting over long distances. Bottom line is you got a nice image in tricky circumstances.
 
I rather quite like this, I like seeing the context to bird images - for me they don't need to always fill the frame and a bird like this in a pose like this is great.
 
The best place we found on this trip is Campbell River on Vancouver Island, they have multiple resident adults. Thanks all for the kind words, hopefully we'll be back again and I'll have perfected the technique...
 
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