Photography: Majestic Bald Eagle
Even though the majestic Bald Eagle is the United States icon we do get are share of them up here in Canada. Today on my walk after purchasing the Canon Remote Switch RS60-E3 I decided to head over to the Alouette River in Pitt Meadows to try and capture any of the large birds of prey that tend to circle over head in that particular location.
Last week on my run on the dikes next to the Alouette River I saw 3 Osprey, 2 Bald Eagles, 1 Golden Eagle, 4 Blue Herons and a bunch of smaller birds such as crows and swallows. Today while walking along the river I thought to myself there was no wildlife today, which struck me as a bit odd but I continued to walk anyway.
About 2Km into my walk I noticed in a tree there was a large bird (I actually saw it flying towards the tree) sitting in the tree that normally has one or two larger birds perched. When I finally arrived and looked up into the tree there was a Golden Eagle and one Bald Eagle.
I took over a hundred photos of the two birds and did not have as many turn out as good as I might have expected too. Granted I have only had my Canon EOS 450D for about a week now so I’m still learning about manual settings and where the sweet spot is for my 75-300mm III USM lens.
I try and get out as much as possible and learn from my outings. If you want to critique the above Bald Eagle shot I am more than willing to listen to any feedback I receive. For those who are curious as to the settings of the camera if it helps you critique the shot they are:
- f/5.6
- 1/640
- ISO 100
- @300mm
I personally think that is an awesome shot!
I know how hard it is to take a photo and we are always more critical than others.
Awesome job!!!
Now I need to learn to take better photos
Thanks Gus! The Golden Eagle didn’t turn out as nice because of its darker colours. I’ll have to find one and see if I can photoshop detail out of it and post it.
wow! awesome. have you tried the 70-200mm IS? i found it super crisp, but i was really close to my subjects. you should try renting a super zoom lens.
I haven’t tried the 70-200mm but I should look at renting it. Where do you rent your lenses Lisa?
You taking great shots already, and you just got your first SLR… impressive. You must have an eye for a good shot.
I notice that the EXIF data has been stripped out of your photos on Flickr, is that on purpose? I’ll quite often look at the data for pictures that I like in order to better understand how the photographer captured the shot. I even add to my EXIF data, putting in things like location and copyright info. It’s on my agenda for future blog posts as to how I do it. I do see that you are mention the details in your posts, but if you only post the picture to Flickr then there is not the opportunity to get things such as shutter speed, aperture, lens used, etc.
I noticed that too about Flickr not including the EXIF data and I am not sure why. I’ll have to look further into that though because I too like to see the data to see how the shot was taken.
You can change the setting on your camera to get a better white balance. Also on the Canon 70-200mm IS USM F2.8 lens. I have and it is well worth the extra money. I use it for almost every event I shoot and the pictures are so crisp. Some good information for you about this lens is that it will actually be like putting a 100mm- 300mm f2.8 lens on your camera. Since you have a smaller sensor and this lens is made for a 35mm camera the difference is about 1.6x zoom on the big lens. Now if you upgrade to full frame camera then you will loose this 1.6x but since it is an added advantage I would seriously consider spending the extra money on the lens.
–currently shooting with 30d