More eagles in crazy lighting and colors

[NorthernFocus]

Still going through eagle files. But I'm into 2013 now. I've actually got some decent stuff still in there but they need work in PP. We had an unusually sunny summer for coastal Alaska which presented both opportunities and challenges. Shooting in flat light is a lot easier (as long as there is enough of it). Here are a couple where I broke the rules and shot backlit without flash (as if you could use one). And a couple that were interesting even though they were departing shots (aka bird butts)

These first two took a lot of PP due to the high dynamic range and because I did them totally in LR and am still pretty slow with it. These two are uploaded at 1200px so open them in the lightbox to see them well. I'd like to hear what others think about the backlit shots. They've been in the files all this time because I didn't have time to deal with them properly.



On this one I like the light reflected under the wings. It was hard to get a good balance processing so that it is visible but not over done.



Then here are a couple of more conventional lighting though the birds had already passed by and I was shooting slightly from behind. In the first one the bird is looking up at another bird to see if he's coming to try and take his fish. I had to reprocess the second one a couple of times because the blue kept coming out really bizarre looking in web colors. It was shot in one of the fjords where there is glacial "bloom" which makes the water sapphire blue on clear days.

[IzzieK]

I like them all but I like #2 best, Dan...

[Donald]

I find I'm not so attracted to the first one, because of the very dark background. With the second one, we 'see the story'; i.e. the bird, the water. I think the light coming through the wings is magnificent, but beaten by the light coming through the tail feathers + the reflection of them on the water. That really lifts from the 'that's wonderful' to the 'THAT IS WONDERFUL' category.

And then the third one, with the bird looking up to its left. That is just different class. A picture, in my opinion, of the highest professional standard.

[Stagecoach]

Dan,

All I can add is that it's the separation of the birds from the background that stuns me.

Grahame

[teokf]

Dan,
Love the shots. My fav is the 2nd pix. It has the backlit, background colors and sharpness and action of the eagle.

[Werner]

I love number 4 because of the action. - Poor fish though

[deetheturk]

Hi Dan,

Fantastic shots,I like them all for different reasons,I wish I had some of these shots lying around my computer well done bud

Cheers David

[bnnrcn]

They are very nice Dan,what type of focusing did you use,continuous or one shot?Did you also use continuous shooting?They are so clear and sharp.#2 is my best but this doesn't mean the others are bad at all.They are all superb

[wilgk]

They really are magnificent creatures & you have shown them to be so,

[Sergio M.]

All great shots, Dan, and wonderfull PP.

Sergio

[Downrigger]

Great Eagles! All just terrific and and an inspiration for me to keep trying/thinking/shooting. Thanks for these.

[NorthernFocus]

Glad you enjoyed the photos, folks. One nice thing about processing them this time of year is that one can re-live a bit of summer.

Thanks for the kind words, Donald. I've spent a lot of time improving both the field craft and photography techniques needed to shoot these guys. They are my favorite subject. Technically challenging and just fun to watch and be around them.

Binnur, I use continuous focus with a single focus point selected and shoot bursts with continuous shutter. I have a camera that is capable of 10fps but have found that six to seven fps is optimal. The extra frames don't make that much difference and I seem to be able to track/focus better with the lower fps.

[bnnrcn]

Thank you Dan.May I ask what fps stands for? I'm a beginner and I'm not very familar with abbreviations

Glad you enjoyed the photos, folks. One nice thing about processing them this time of year is that one can re-live a bit of summer.

Thanks for the kind words, Donald. I've spent a lot of time improving both the field craft and photography techniques needed to shoot these guys. They are my favorite subject. Technically challenging and just fun to watch and be around them.

Binnur, I use continuous focus with a single focus point selected and shoot bursts with continuous shutter. I have a camera that is capable of 10fps but have found that six to seven fps is optimal. The extra frames don't make that much difference and I seem to be able to track/focus better with the lower fps.

[Brownbear]

Hi Dan,

All exquisite but my favourite is the 3rd image because of the way you captured the eagle looking up, followed closely by the 2nd image.

I like the first image because it is a beautiful capture but I wonder if it would work better if the background was just a wee bit darker to make it more artsy, ie... I can see just a hint of the bokeh in there.

[NorthernFocus]

Thank you Dan.May I ask what fps stands for? I'm a beginner and I'm not very familar with abbreviations

FPS is "frames per second", in other words how many shots per second the camera can take in continuous shutter mode.

...I like the first image because it is a beautiful capture but I wonder if it would work better if the background was just a wee bit darker to make it more artsy, ie... I can see just a hint of the bokeh in there.

To make it any darker it would be necessary to make a real tight mask on the bird which I was too lazy to do. I backed off a little on the BG because any darker and a halo started to be visible around the bird. It really is a matter of taste also. Total black would be cool. But just the hint of BG and the slight golden haze is more the real thing. That morning we were in a fjord with high mountains on either side. The sun was just coming over the mountain with the fjord half in sunlight and half in shade. There was just enough moisture in the air for that bit of golden haze to the black shadow.

Or at least that's what I convinced myself rather than go back and mask the bird

It was maddening shooting that morning. The birds were sitting up on the shaded mountainside watching the water. When they would dive down after a fish they would be in the shade on approach then might or might not pop out into the sun depending on where the fish was that they were diving on. They were sitting pretty high up the hillside and when they came down they were in a steep dive and really moving. I shoot in manual exposure mode so had to pick either sunlit or in shadow and take my chances. I set for the sunlit conditions and it worked out OK.

[jamn4ex]

Dan Your Eagles show the work you have put in.