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This Bald Eagle image was created from the driver’s seat of my Toyota Sequoia down by the lake a few minutes from my home right after the SW FLA IPT. I used the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the EF 1.4X III TC, and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/160 sec. at f/14 in Manual mode. Denise Ippolito was in the back seat. More on that to follow. |
Finally…
I wrote the following on morning of Sunday, October 25, 2009. It was saved as a draft but never published:
“I got out early this morning to do some bird photography down by the lake. (I had been working hard in the office about 14 hours a day for two weeks so it felt good to get out.) The day dawned clear and the light was gorgeous. The wind however was out of the north-northwest; this is about as bad a wind as you can have for morning bird photography as the birds will be facing into the wind and away from the light. I was working from my SUV with the 800 lens on the BLUBB (the BAA Big Lens Ultimate Beanbag).
I headed east on a 1/2 mile long peninsula to see if the eagle was in its favorite tree. As I got closer, I could see that it was in perfect position right at the top. The bird was facing away but I knew that it would have a careful eye on my vehicle and be looking back over his shoulder at me. As I was headed south I needed to drive past the perch tree, make a u-turn, get everything ready, and then head back north so that I could photograph out of the driver’s side window.
I got my gear ready and raised the window to reduce the angle of inclination. Then I stopped down to f/13 knowing that it is always a good idea to have some extra depth-of-field for those over-the-shoulder views (otherwise the feathers on the bird’s back will be rendered unattractively out of focus). One I was all set, I put the car in gear and proceeded very slowly to sun angle (with my shadow pointed right at the base of the perch tree). As I was coming to a stop, I glanced up at the eagle. It looked huge and gorgeous. And majestic. To avoid flushing the bird from its perch on the narrow peninsula, I well to my right. I stopped the car and just as I got the lens on the bird it lifted its wings and flew northwest out over the lake….
You gotta love it. I will try for this bird again soon and will share anything that I get with you.”
Actually, I had been trying to get the eagle on the perch for more than ten years, ever since I moved from Deltona down to Indian Lake Estates in Polk county. It would turn out to be another 16 months until I finally got lucky. As Denise and I drove past the bird it was on top of a small tree. It flushed but landed up on its favorite perch. That gave me hope. I drove by the bird, made the u-turn, and held my breath. The image above was created with the 800 and the 1.4X II TC just before the bird took flight. The image below was my first effort; I was so nervous that I did not realize that I had not mounted the teleconverter….
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| This was the image that I created before I remembered to add the 1.4X TC. After so many years of frustrating me, I could not believe that the bird just sat there posing. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering 1 1/3 stops: 1/640 sec. at f/5.6 In Manual mode. |
It is interesting to note the huge difference in the size of the bird in the frame with the addition of the 1.4X II TC. Folks fail to realize that that is a factor of the square of the focal lengths…. (Neither image was cropped at all.) I was happy with both of the images above. Denise in the meantime was in the back seat not taking any pictures. Though she had her 500mm f/L IS lens and a 1.4X teleconverter, she was hand holding the Canon 100-400mm IS L zoom lens hoping that the bird would take off. After about ten minutes it did and Denise created the spectacular image below.
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| This image is courtesy of and copyright 2011 Denise Ippolito. She did a fine job of repairing the clipped primaries of the raised wing. Canon 100-400mm IS L zoom lens hand held at 400mm with the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 800. 1/1250 at f/5.6 was Evaluative metering plus about 1 1/3 stops. |
I am constantly telling folks that since I use long lenses and like to work tight that I am not very good at capturing images of birds in action and birds in flight. The tale and the three images above would seem to indicate that I am not blowing smoke.
I fly to London late this afternoon for the first ever Dalmatian Pelican IPT. Co-leader Robert O’Toole is picking me up at the Thessaloniki airport on Sunday afternoon. My Web/IT expert Peter Kes is coming as my guest. We have seven other photographers joining us for what should be a wondrous trip. I should be on line most of the time.
Shopper’s Guide
Below is a list of the gear that I used to create the image above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins.
Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens. Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
Canon EF 1.4X III TC. This new TC is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. This is the very best professional digital camera body that I have ever used..
And from the BAA On-line Store:
Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card. Fast and dependable.
The BLUBB. Ellen Anon’s son Josh forgot his BLUBB on a recent trip to Chicago so he called Jim yesterday and had one over-nighted for Saturday delivery!
I loved your “best laid plans—–” story. Haven’t we all experienced such frustration – which is why when thing do work out it feels so good.
It is nice when they cooperate!! I was packing up after photographing the eagles’ nest near our house near Naples, FL when a tourist pulled up asking me about my gear. After talking a few minutes, he asked me if I had photographed “that one” pointing straight up. I looked up to see an eagle perched in perfect light 10 feet directly over my head intently watching me pack my gear! He sat there majestically as I unpacked my camera and put it back on the tripod and did not fly off until I had walked across the way to get a decent angle. Never took a shot. 🙁 However, he was kind enough to re-pose a week later for the perfect eagle shot and I was able to see the 2 chicks give flight.