Alaskan Bald eagles

[Recty]

I went down to Homer this weekend and finally got a good test of my telephoto lens. So far all the wildlife I've photographed with it has been relatively slow moving. These eagles were anything but slow! The lens performed flawlessly though, I only had a very very few that were out of focus and everything else went off without a hitch. All in all, I came out of it with a LOT of useable photographs!

 

[Recty]

There was an eagle I started calling "Crazy Eye" who obviously had been hit in the head with something at one point. He had some pretty subdued scars that you dont really see until zooming in, but his left eye is kind of screwy. He is in a couple of the pictures above and then some below as well...

 

[klepto]

:eek2:

Those are lovely images Grant. I would say they're a tad more than just 'useable' Your subjects are also stunning.

I would pick a favorite if I could. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for sharing.

What lens are those taken with?

 

[Kostrab]

Thanks for sharing... Those are some awesome photo's!

 

[Doomed]

Wow those are so awesome!

 

[fishtankdon]

Man, these are great. I would hang these on my wall they look so good. Look almost fake. Beautiful back ground also. Breath taking.

 

[Reef Bass]

Excellent job. Lovely images. Killer lens.

 

[PSam]

Great shots of an amazing animal. Crazy eye is almost cartoonish!

 

[Brett9917]

Pretty much everything Klepto said, I am going to repeat haha.

If those pictures are just usable, I can't wait to see what pictures you are proud of haha. Whatever lens you purchased, it looks like it was well worth the investment!

 

[Recty]

Thanks guys! It was a fun weekend for sure. I took one for the team on this one, I hiked through about 200' of 4' deep fresh powder to get these shots and froze my lens, I had to take a shower afterwards just to restore feeling to my toes. It was all worth it though in the end.

The lens in question is the Canon 100-400 telephoto. I purchased it primarily for wildlife and with eagles in mind and I'm sure glad I did. I was debating it or the 300mm prime and ended up going with the 100-400 so I could frame my subjects better and I am sooooooo glad I did. The prime might take slightly better pictures, but for me these are more than good enough for me so I'm happy with this.

 

[Recty]

I think this is neat, it's 4 frames stitched together into a single picture showing an eagle landing. It was from some of the lesser quality pictures while it was snowing outside but I've got some better ones I'll spend some more time on later.

 

[fatrip]

that is awsome...you have some great pictures there..

 

[BiochemRobyn]

Were you able to get any shots of the bald eagle or hunting or eating? Also, how on earth did you track the bald eagle in the first place?

Beautiful and stunning pictures!!!

 

[quader94]

I just saw eagles over the weekend, I stopped and watched them for a bit. HUGE birds in person

 

[IPT]

MAn, you are halfway making me think about getting one of those lenses! Nice light you had there on quite a few of them. I went up to Fairbanks for the Ice Art Festival...gnarly drive man, I'll post some shots soon. Nice job though on those images .

Oh yeah, ever hear of "snowshoes" and Goretex (LOL) . You should have been up in Denali. We stopped and did a three hour ski on the way up....it was like 20 degrees ABOVE zero!! The ranger showed us some pics of a Lynx that walked right past the Visitor center the day before at 11 am! Course we didn't see a thing. No moose, no Ptarmagan, not even a snowshoe hare.

 

[IPT]

BTW - what were your settings on avg? Were you shooting in Manual or Av? Looks like they were pretty close to some of those trees or you were stopped down some?

 

[swjim]

Beautiful series! I'm glad the hike and near frostbite paid off.

 

[Recty]

BTW - what were your settings on avg? Were you shooting in Manual or Av? Looks like they were pretty close to some of those trees or you were stopped down some?

I shot this series in AV which is unusual for me, I normally stick to manual. The thing was I was shooting towards the sun sometimes, away most of the time and halfway between for some of it, manual would have required me switching settings every couple seconds, so I just stuck it on 1/1500th of a second, ISO 400 and let the camera do the rest.

I was pretty close to the trees for a lot of these, it all just depended where the eagle was flying.

Beautiful series! I'm glad the hike and near frostbite paid off.

Me too If those pictures had turned out craptastic I would have been frostbit for nothing!

 

[reeftanker10]

We've got Bald Eagles that migrate over the winter down here to Illinois. There is a huge series of nests about 5 min from my house all the way up the Mississippi about 45 min from where i live. They are huge birds in person...one time there was one sitting on the side of the road and i swear it appeared to be 3 feet tall

 

[breutus]

Recty,

I...

AM...

SO...

JEALOUS!!!

Seriously those are some of the most amazing shots I have ever seen!

We get bald eagles down here near Saint Louis every year and I always make it out to snap a few pictures, They are such magnificent birds.

And while they may not be quite up to what you've posted I'll show a few of mine from last year and you can see what ya think

those three are probably some of my best ever LOL