Anticipating Lift Off

How close were you able to get to this Eagle?  We have a large amount of Eagles near where I live and I find them to be a little skittish.  Hard to get too close without disturbing them.  Love the detail you were able to capture in the face and beak.  Nice shot.  Thanks for sharing.

Mike,

Thanks!  I took this from my boat.  The eagles tend to sit in these white pine trees along the lake shore looking for fish.

When it is quiet I can usually get about 40 to 50 yards from them before they fly.  Sometimes a bit closer in a kayak.

Currently I'm using a Nikon D300 with the 80-400mm Nikkor VRI zoom.

The lens has very decent glass, but the AF is the original screw type that depends on the camera body, not an in the lens ultrasonic motor.  So, you have to focus close to where you think the bird will be.  The lens can make fairly fast adjustments if they are small.

This is a crop from a 14-bit RAW file(about the middle 1/3) which was processed in Aperture 3.

Conversion to JPEG for posting degrades the image somewhat.

I keep dreaming of a D800 body with the 600 mm, f4, VRII lens.

I'm still dreaming:-)

Dick

fantastic capture of this wonderful eagle, very good the light, the colours and sharpness, ciao Giangiorgio

Great image, I like it very much! 7!

Best, Tina

Thank you very much, Giangiorgio and Tina!

Best regards,

Dick

Thank you, jorge!