Eagle and Flag

Another one of my eagle and flag creations.

Eagle and Flag

Another one of my eagle shots extracted and layered over one of my flag shots.

Photo of the Day Bald Eagle

This was taken just outside of Juneau, Alaska. Found a bunch of eagles feeding and came across this one diving into the water. I don't know what he has in his mouth.

I have an eagle gallery on my main website www.akphotograph.com or as a blog post here www.akphotograph.com/Alaska%20Blog/?p=201

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

I was going through some of my eagle photos from earlier this year and came across this one. I didn't know I had it, what diamonds we find in our archives.

Homer Eagle Feedings

I wanted my family to witness an eagle feeding in Homer Alaska. Jean Keene, the eagle lady, died this winter and Homer will not allow public feedings in Homer after March 27th. Jean has been feeding eagles for 30 years and it is a very unique opportunity to get up close to dozens of bald eagles. I usually go a couple times a winter to get my eagle fix. I just love these magnificent raptors.

Photographers from all over the world visit Homer in the winter to photograph eagles. You can click on each photo to get a larger view.

The lineup

My daughter among the photographers. This was an hour and a half before feedings and it was 7 degrees F with a stiff wind.....brrrrrr. I met photographers from England, Mass.,Alabama, Oklahoma, California, Canada and some Flickr friends as well. The majority of them were enthusiastic amateurs with much bigger budgets than me.

I was shooting eagles for the first time with my 5D mark ii with my 100-400mm. I gave my daughter a 40D with a 70-200mm 2.8 with a 1.4 teleconverter. I sure did have lens envy with all the 600mm around, but we were so close here. Sometimes you could feel the vortex created by the wings of the eagles as they flew in.

Catch of the Day

Fish were being thrown in the air and the eagles would launch off their perch and grab the fish. Amazing to watch, even more amazing to photograph with my super slow 5D.

Hanging Out

Did not put my wide angle lens on, but this gives you an idea of the numbers of eagles.

An Eagle Lineup

Coming at me

Got a fish

Another Catch

In for the catch

Wow

Hanging On

Over the Water

Most of these shots are straight out of the camera, no post processing. I took some video with the 5D as well. I will put something together soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mike

http://www.akphotograph.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaska48/

Photographing Eagles

I am organizing and cataloging my digital files using Lightroom. I had no idea how many photos I had or that I had so many of certain subjects.
One of my favorite subjects to photograph is the bald eagle. Living in Alaska gives me that opportunity, but it is not as easy as you think. A lot of things have to happen to get a "keeper" image. I have thousands of eagle images, but only a handful I would rate 5 stars.

This image taken in Juneau combines light, wind direction and background into a good eagle image. Once I found these conditions and the eagles, it was very hard to pull myself away. I came across a group of them feeding on something near the shore and scared them off when I got out of the car. After sitting quietly for 30 to 40 minutes they started to come back and I was able to take hundreds of photos.
I had positioned myself so the light and wind would give me the best chance of getting good shots. Even if I can't photograph eagles, I will watch them and try to learn their characteristics.
You need to take advantage of wind direction to help your photos. The light on the above image shows detail in the wing feathers. This is not always easy.
Catching eagles as they land can give you striking poses. This is a Juneau eagle landing on the rocks next to the shore.
This eagle put his head under water and pulled this out. Not sure what it was, but he was really serious about getting his food.

The above eagle photograph was taken in Valdez last year. It was a beautiful, cold day and the eagles around town were active. I have been to Valdez dozens of times and only once did I get some good eagle pictures. A lot of it has to do with weather and with it, lighting.
Another picture from Valdez. Nothing like a mountain and another eagle for a background!

Homer is my favorite places to photograph eagles. The image above was taken while walking the beach. This eagle was not bothered by humans at all and cruised up and down the beach for a couple hours feeding on minnows at low tide.
Another shot on the beach at Homer. If you have never been to Homer, you owe yourself a trip. It is a beautiful place.
A young eagle cruising the beach in Homer. This one was a little more shy around humans.

I have been very fortunate to have solitude in most of my endeavors to photograph eagles. There are times, however, where an eagle will pose just off a busy road in the middle of summer. This is what you get:
A lot of glass on this hillside in Homer. There was an eagle sitting on a piece of driftwood along the road.

Hope you enjoyed my eagle photography.

Mike