Monday, November 29, 2010

Bird of Prey

Sorry for my thoroughly boring title here. Between several computer quirks and issues and the fact that I almost forgot that today was my day, I'm just glad to be able to get a photo up. I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I still have guests visiting, which I love, but it makes it hard to stay on top of things. So I have to admit, this photo is from my archives.

Brandi's fabulous photo with the feather made me think of the eagles that come to visit us in droves during the winter season. I live near a dam on the Mississippi River and the river here doesn't freeze like it does elsewhere. For that reason, we are one of the areas where bald eagles come to fish around the dam in the still flowing waters. I have heard that there are some HUGE catfish swimming around that divers have seen. We haven't caught one yet, but my family keeps hoping...

Bald eagles are one of those creatures that make you stop and just reflect on life, freedom, America, flying and a whole host of other things. I try every year to capture some of those reflections with my camera. Sadly it is very difficult for me to do. In this picture I wanted to try and capture the intensity of the gaze that all wildlife predators have. I turned it to black and white for dramatic effect and because the day was grey and icky. I also had to zoom in quite a bit because I don't have my 400mm telephoto lens that I am dying to get! Anybody looking to get rid of one let me know. My wildlife photography dream is still going strong :0).

Sere

Nikon D2X
Lens 18-200mm at 200mm
ISO-400
Aperture F/8
Shutter Speed 1/250

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful and what a perfect tie in! Great job on getting his head in focus. From the angle you must have been at it had to be hard to not get the sticks and such by his tail feathers in focus.
    Job well done!!

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  2. Very cool photo Sere! I used to love taking pictures of the bald eagles when I would go on fishing trips around Hayward, WI but I never got one this good. I love the texture you were able to capture of his feathers. Bravo! Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Sere, I keep coming back and enjoying your photo of this eagle. So cool! I love the effect making it B & W does to it. I'd love to see the rest of your eagle shots.
    I was looking at this yesterday and K came up and said "What you looking at Daddy?". I said "A picture of an eagle". She replied "Why he mad?" I got a kick out of that, just thought I would share.

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  4. Awww that is too cute! He does look kind of mad haha. I think he's probably in hunter mode. Thank you. At first I wasn't going to go black and white but when I tried it for fun I just loved what it did. I would love to show you some of my eagle shots. Hoping to get some more this season. I just wish my lens was bigger, more telephoto. Instead I have to shoot in raw and zoom in more.

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