The Eagle Has Landed

[Wingman]

I think I finally got the right light and distance. Still having trouble with "freezing" the flying shots.

This is where she was when I first arrived. Hunkered down deep in the bowl of the nest, obviously incubating.

[Wingman]

She is, quite literally, one bad mother. I mean, cause she's a mom and all. And look at those hooks.

[Wingman]

A few more.

[Wingman]

There was a kingfisher flying around the same lake. He looked like a gnat in comparison.

[Wingman]

I know this isn't the best pic, but I love the flight attitude. She is practically vertical while preparing to land.

I have never been around eagles as much as I have this year. They make some neat sounds. The typical chirping sound (like on Listen to the Eagle radio show), but they also make a noise that sounds like pig grunting. It reminds me of the noise specks make when alarmed, that grinding, grunting sound, but deeper. Several times when they were flying nearby, they made this sound.

[MSDawg870]

I like the 2nd one.

You can tell its a female, cause she's running her mouth.

[Wingman]

You are right. She did that just as the male flew by, as if to say, "Have you gone to the store, yet?"

[GordonGekko]

man you've got the distance down...that second shot is really powerful....

when you say you aren't able to freeze them in flight, that usually means your shutter speed is not high enough.... what mode are you shooting in (I suspect you're in green box mode).... first you can try the sports mode to get a faster shutter speed, but eventually you will want to start using AV and TV mode on the camera.... I almost exclusively use AV....

AV allows you to manually set the aperture (f-stop) and control the depth of field and amount of light that the sensor recieves through the lens. Once you pick an f-stop say f.8 then your camera's meter will adjust the shutter speed to try to get a proper exposure. So you need to keep an eye on the shutter speed. through the viewfinder of the camera, and if you see it is getting low. If it is you will want to open up your aperture (pick a smaller f-stop number), say for instance moving down to f.5.6, which will increase the light let through your lens and shorten the amount of time your shutter has to be open, therfore you shutter speed will be faster.... In AV you can also choose your ISO which will give you another tool to increase or decrease shutter speed....

I'll take an example from one of your flight images, the one "on a mission" was taken at f-8, 1/500 sec. exposure, and ISO 200....for birds in flight I like to have a shutter speed of greater than 1/1000 of a second to "freeze" them...

now hindsight being 20/20 if you were shooting in AV and looked through and saw the shutter was at 1/500 of a second, you could have opened the aperture all the way up to f5.6, or you could have moved the ISO to 400, and both would have increased the exposure 1 stop, meaning the shutter speed would then be 1/1000 of a second (twice as fast) or if you did both, moved the ISO to 400 and changed the aperture to f-5.6 you would have a gotten a shutter speed of around 1/2000 of a second.... does that make any sense? I hope it hasn't confused you too much....

[Wingman]

I was in P mode. I tried TV mode a few times and all I got was a whispery blur of an eagle, in front of a clear tree.

[cwink]

I liked the 6th pic.. Close up..

[4dawgma]

great pics! Is that at Sky Lake? I hope she's not eating our warblers

[LawDawg]

awesome pics rob. your next mission is to capture it with a fish in its talons.

[GordonGekko]

I was in P mode. I tried TV mode a few times and all I got was a whispery blur of an eagle, in front of a clear tree.

TV allows you to manually set the shutter speed, I'm curious what you had it set to? I would imagine it was pretty slow to completely blur the eagle.... although if you had the shutter speed set to 1/1000 in TV mode the camera would automatically open up the aperture to try and compensate for the faster shutter speed (but since it can only open it up so far you might end up with underexposed pics unless you raised your ISO).... hope that didn't confuse you too bad....

when you go back try setting your camera at ISO 400 and f-6.3 if you have similar light that should bump up your shutter speed....

[Bullet]

I like the one with the Eagles head down like she's praying for our country or something symbolic like that. Nice pics Robert

[Wingman]

Praying with her eyes open? I think not.

I think she was checking her toenail polish.

Thanks for the compliments, fellas. I am having a ball with this camera.