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1-5-09
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Ever since last year's eagle pictures I've been pretty eager for another opportunity. The feedback I had from all over the world regarding last year's entry was pretty overwhelming to tell the honest truth. I can never tell how good a picture really is until I hear it from other people. I am always looking for flaws in my work, so I thank everyone who sent me e-mails last year. This year's, however, I KNOW aren't as good as last. At full size, my lens is still taking some pretty soft images and I need to get to the root of the problem. I have too much money invested in equipment to be taking average pictures. It's really starting to frustrate me.
These first few were actually from December, but I didn't want to make two seperate accounts. I have a new eagle watching partner this time! My girlfriend Meghan and I saw this guy gnawing on this shad (and a HUGE one at that) on a branch not too far from us. With these cloudy conditions, it's pretty difficult to take pictures sometimes. At the 400mm end, you need a fast shutter speed to achieve clear shots, even with IS I have found. The only thing to do is to bump up the ISO which I cannot STAND. The only reason for that, which anyone who regularly reads up on this site knows, is noise levels start to increase dramatically. I am a huge enemy of noise. Neat Image does a good job normally, but sometimes it can make shots look too "smoothed" over and unnatural looking.
DEEEEELICIOUS.
I can only take so many shots of eagles eating fish in trees before they get a bit redundant. I left this guy alone with his meal after I took...oh....40 pics of him.
These next shots were from December 19th. I was hoping for blue skies, but once again cloud cover wouldn't cooperate with me for a while. This was the only one that came out halfway clear until the sun came out.
Ahh...sun is finally out, but now it's getting a bit late and I had to be somewhere soon.
Yep, not many eagles out. I had to shoot something while I was just standing there.
Icy treetops on the Illinois side. That scene was pretty neat.
Jump forward two more days to the 21st. Today was COOOOOOLD. Meghan came with me and we both looked like eskimos. If I can remember correctly it was below zero with the wind chill. We were pretty bundled up but my limbs were still pretty numb. We got sort of a late start so the sun was a bit lower, yet again not allowing for a fast shutter. But, I'll still take this over a cloudy day.
Look, she's a natural! She actually took some pretty impressive shots herself! I'm not really sure there is much she can't do, to be quite honest. She's there somewhere under those 18 layers of clothes. There are upsides to the frigid cold too though. I actually prefer the bitter chill. I may seem a bit rude here, but it keeps away most people from flocking to the dam to watch. As I said before, and I'm not really sure why I'm like this, but I would rather have nobody else around me when I am taking pictures. Well, people I don't know anyway. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.
The steam coming off the river was pretty sweet as well. There were a few steamnadoes but I didn't get any. I tried to get one closer to the dam, but wouldn't you know it, the shot came out blurry.
Some sort of plant looking south. I should have made these pics a bit bigger. I'm actually not too sure why then ended up this small, but this has taken too long as it is and I really didn't feel like going back and resizing all of them over again.
Ducks landing. I couldn't tell if these were mallards or not.
These above two I really don't care if they are too small. These were extremely blurry full size. I only put them up because I had FINALLY snagged a shot of one grabbing a fish. I didn't realize I'd have some golden opportunities in the very near future.
Alright, now they start to get a little better. These were some shots I've been waiting for. Last year's outings never produced anything like this, much to my disappointment. Much to this guy's disappointment, that small fish must have slipped from his grip. By the time he circled back around to swoop back down, a seagull had already gobbled it up. Those little white birds are absolutely relentless.
This one, however, had some better luck. It's awesome watching them get these things out of the water. One has to figure the size of these fish. Those are HUGE birds, and if the fish looks that big, that has got to be a big one.
THIS was fun to watch. I was actually laughing out loud to myself watching this fiasco. That juvenile was the first to spot a fish on the surface. That adult was quick to tail him though, and he didn't waste any time intimidating him.
The adult made his swoop and completely distracted that juvenile from his lunch. It was far from over though.
That is the same adult coming back for the prize.
Valiant effort, but still failed. You can see the fish all the way up by his body, but not in its talons. Missed him.
This is a different immature in on the action now. There were now 5 eagles going after the same fish. In the picture above, you actually see a stream of blood coming from the head of the fish to the bottom of the eagle. It almost looks like it's attached to a string. Whatever the case, that is one slippery fish.
Aha, finally got him! Oh, wait......
Nevermind. This younger one immediately swooped in and grabbed him up, finally claiming the hard earned prize.
This wasn't too much longer after the deal above, except a little closer. I was thoroughly enjoying this right about now.
He ended up with his, but he was a tiny one. At full size, you can see a very small fish in its talons.
This young guy was on the bank for some reason. He wasn't hunting or anything, just sitting there. Every now and then he'd flap his wings. I thought for a second he was injured, but he eventually flew away once someone walked close enough to him.
It is now December 30th. Finally, a perfectly sunny day. It paid off too.
Young and old. There were quite a few of them in the trees today.
FINALLY a buzz-by turns out in focus. For the life of me I could not get a good shot when one came cruising in overhead.
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