My Telephoto Photo

[NMarti]

Well - we finally got a sunny day here. The first one since Christmas. I finally got to take a few minutes off dog-sitting and went to see the eagles that are wintering here along the Mississippi River. Here is the reason I bought a telephoto lens :)

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1tYx6Zb05IlhUEB5iim6hePZdk33T

This is a young eagle about a year old that has not yet turned white on the head and tail feathers, although he is starting to get the white feathers on his neck. The mature ones were all too far back from the roadway to get a good picture.


hmmm... seems to be displaying darker on pixentral that on my computer or than printed out - wonder why?:confused:

[Kathy]

Wow Nancy ! Beauty.

I can see why you wanted a telephoto lens. They are awesome birds .... you are lucky to have them nearby.

Kathy

[jwhitten]

Very nice! If that is your first, I hope you will share future shots with us.

Joe

[NMarti]

Joe - I don't think that will be a problem :D

Kathy - yes - we are very lucky. The first time I ever saw a live one in person was about 10 years ago when they started wintering here. It is so awesome to watch them fly, catch fish and feed their young. The nest is about 100 yards back from the road and one particular pair have returned for a second year to lay. This guy is probably from last years eggs as he is staying pretty close to the nest. There are about 100 around but most stay pretty far back from human reach. There is a wildlife water refuge there and they feel safe there as well as the ability to fish at the lock and dam that is right next to the refuge.

[w7vp]

Nice job Nancy!:)
Can you give us some details on the shot? I.e, lens characteristics, shutter speed and aperture, ISO, etc. The composition is great IMHO. Was the nearer branch a ways away from the branch the eagle is sitting on? It appears that there was the usual distance compression but the nearer branch seems less focused than the eagle.

We have a large Bald Eagle population on our rivers and beaches here so It gives me some great ideas for some shots.

Bill

[Carbone]

Nice bird ;)

What lens did you get ?

Ray

[NMarti]

Ray - I got the 75 - 300 5.6 Canon lens to get the rebate. It's nothing fancy, not USM or IS but figured (using Grant's theory) that if I can't take pictures with it then an ulta-expensive IS lens probably wouldn't help either. Also - if it was not very good, by the time I figured rebates in it only cost me about $40 so no big loss. I opted instead for a monopod to help me out but didn't have it with me today. In fact, it was quite windy and had to fight the wind as well as my arm shake. I was pretty pleased with the results.

Bill - uhh - full auto - moved till it looked good and shot. I'm not that good yet lol

[Wendy]

Nancy ...

Hey nice shot !! ... you must have been really pleased with that :)

Wendy

[kevq]

Nancy,
Great shot.
Wonderful bird.

Kev.:)

[NMarti]

Thanks Kev - he is a beauty. Wendy, I was pretty pleased considering my shake issue. I had to shoot up into the tree so didn't have a lot of choice about limbs being in the way. This was actually the best available shot through the limbs.

[Wendy]

Nancy ...

I think you did really well with it ... I certainly would be delighted to take a shot like that :)


Wendy

[jo]

That's a keeper, Nancy! There are supposed to be some eagles coming back to our valley but I haven't seen any yet.

[NMarti]

Thanks Jo and welcome back! Hope your feeling better.

[Chuck S.]

Nancy, great shot! We've reportedly had a Bald Eagle at the Nature Center about two miles from here (in south suburban Houston) but I haven't seen it yet. Your shot gives me an incentive to go out and spend some time looking for our local visitor!

Chuck

[Jodi Frye]

Wow, nice shot. We have the occasional baldy but they are so high up....soaring the way they do like no other creature. I don't suspect I'll ever be lucky enough to get a close up like that around these parts. Thanks for sharing.

Chuck, yes you best put those legs to use and get crakin' on that shot ! :) Will be nice to see it posted here. No pressure ;)

[NMarti]

Thanks Jodi and Chuck. Hey Chuck - he's well worth waiting for. Best time to catch are around 8-10 in am and 4-6 in pm as that's when they catch their fish and other prey.

[virgo1]

Nancy,
Beautiful shot. Eagles need time and patience. We camp twice a year on the Mississippi at Cassville Wi. They nest there and elsewhere along the upper Mississippi Valley. Nancy...We're only a 90 min drive from the River. And lake Michigan is 90 min in the other direction.:D
Eva;)

[Punkinsmom]

They are magnifiscent birds! I remember the first time I ever saw one. We were fly fishing in a river in Mio, MI and I just had this eerry feeling something was watching me. I happened to look up and as I did this huge bird rose from the tree where he had been sitting and flew off into the sunset. I'll never forget that as long as I live. I felt honored to see it.
Can't wait to see more pictures of them from you.

[Chuck S.]

I spent several days last year in Valdez, Alaska. Up there, the eagles are garbage dump scavengers, much like the various seagulls in the lower 48. The residents don't even blink when they see one; I went nuts every time one (or two or three) swooped down low over the town. I don't think I could ever become jaded about eagles....

...on the other hand, if I lived in Valdez year 'round.....

:rolleyes:

Chuck

[NMarti]

Sherrie
We were sitting along the river one day looking for them and just as I turned to look up on the bluffs one swooped down and came within 15 feet of our car! I was awestruck! The wingspan is amazing. We have been back on a weekly basis from Dec thru early March ever since. Never had a camera before that had enough zoom to catch one - and didn't even have a camera that day. Have had one in my car ever since - just in case.

[NMarti]

Chuck,
Alaska is my dream vacation. Eagles, bears, mountains, etc.... I would need 100 gigs just to get started...:D

[Punkinsmom]

Nancy,
Never leave home without your camera. I've even started carrying mine to work with me, Just in case!:)

[Norm F]

Nancy,

Very nice photo!! I'll bet it was fun playing with that new toy.

I've been thinking about buying that lens. I'm fairly new to photography and I don't know a lot about the telephoto lens, other than it will allow me to get much closer, without actually getting closer. Could you take a stab at how far away you might have been from the eagle when you took the photo?

Secondly, how that heck did you manage to net out "around $40?" The "on sale" price is $279 in my area. Mind you, that's in Canadian dollars.

Thanks,

[Chuck S.]

That lens is $189.95 US on amazon.com; great bargain!

[NMarti]

Norm,
I bought my camera and the lens and qualified for a $160 rebate. The lens was $199 so the lens actually only cost $39 because of the rebate. Kind of a round about way of looking at it but if I didn't buy the lens I would not have qualified for the full $160 so it just made sense to do it.

If guessing I would say about 80-100 yards. The eagle was sitting in the top of the tree so I was shooting up but the highway was elevated too so I was actually about a third of the way up the tree height anyway. My husband guessed the distance from the highway to be about that. I was on full zoom at 300.

[Mack C. in Brooklin ON]

39:) I went for a drive one day to take some pics and lo and behold this guy was sitting on this fence post. There was a dead skunk in the middle of the road (I think there's a song by that title!) and he was waiting for the busy traffic to pass.

:o This isn't exactly the way I wanted to show the pic. I thought I was going thru Pixcentral but obviously not. Taken with an S2 IS with the 1.5 telextender attachment. It's so UGLY it's BEAUTIFUL!!

[Chuck S.]

Tom, I'm sure that Turkey Vulture's parents thought he/she was most attractive...

:)

Chuck

[Wendy]

Mack ...

It is a very nice image ... but I don't think that he will win many beauty contests :)


Wendy

[w7vp]

Nancy:
The info on the zoom tells me why the foreground is compressed into the background. That is why I asked about the settings. Can you tell me what the camera chose for shutter speed and aperature? You can find that info in the metadata.

I was not able (willing because of weather?) to go x-c skiing this weekend so I was not able to satisfy my need to try my new lens. Your picture is pressuring me to do something today.:)
Bill

[NMarti]

Mack,
He is quite a looker - good or bad ;) . That's a great picture. Usually the best pictures happen when we least expect them. Yesterday we came across a falcon on a sign and a hawk on the phone wire but both took off when we pulled the car over. Good job getting this guy - but I agree with Wendy - no beauty contest in his future.

Bill - I will check when I get home. I'm done dogsitting and back to work now so can't check until later. Will let you know.

[karen donnybrook]

Nancy, We did a tour around Canada and Alaska in May 2005 and is was absolutely wonderful.

For the Alaskan part of the tour we were on the Diamond Princess sailing the Inside Passage with stops at Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Victoria (Can) with a trip into the Tracy Arm where we were surrounded by icebergs.

The kind of scenery we saw in both Canada and Alaska, we can't see here in Australia.

We did see a couple of eagles in the wild but not close enough to photograph, anyway we were in a vehicle on a narrow winding road!!

[Carbone]

The kind of scenery we saw in both Canada and Alaska, we can't see here in Australia.

This is called.. snow, ice, pieces of frozen hell, white stuff, crystalized desperation, and other far less polite names. I could send you big pieces of it, free of charge. Cold as it is actually, it would be completely unfrozen when it will arrive at your home.

:)

Ray

[karen donnybrook]

It wasn't like that Ray. There was still snow/ice on the mountains and even on the Athabasca Glacier it was only -2 degrees celcius! (there was no wind chill factor). When we were on board, I walked around the decks each day wearing a short sleeved T-shirt and long pants (only because I had not taken any shorts!).

I will dig up a couple of my photos and post them for you to prove it wasn't like that.

[NMarti]

Bill - okay here's the file info:
Meter mode- Pattern
Shutter 1/400
F 7.1
Aperature 7.1
ISO 100

[Sportsfan]

Nancy,

Very nice picture of the Eagle. I take it that you are enjoying your new camera? I remember reading another thread before the holidays that you had purchased a Minolta and were so unhappy with it you took it back and got a Canon. Please keep posting those great shots.

Sportsfan

[NMarti]

Thanks Sportsfan,
Yeah - I did buy the Minolta and took it back and got the Canon Rebel XT. I am having a ball with it - but am a little frustrated by the fact that there has been so little good weather to get out and try it out. This was the first sunny day we had when I was off work and could take advantage of it.

[Norm F]

Nancy,

Thanks for the feedback on the lens. Sounds like it's exactly what I'm after. I'll ask the salesperson to forward half of the commission to you!!

BTW, you have excellent taste in cameras. ;)

[NMarti]

Norm
Thanks:D Tell them cash only please:D :D

[NMarti]

Ok - week 2 and a new eagle shot. First - let me tell you the eagle shot is 100% genuine. He just wasn't sitting on a branch (was in a visitors center on a stool) and the background was not black (bulletin boards, desks, people) but the eagle is real! Just a little elements magic and a beautiful picture!

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/gallery/view_img.php?id=3688

[kayser]

Another great shot! I always share your pics with my husband, because he's really into nature photography. And nice presentation too.

[Norm F]

Naaaaaancy!!!

That shot is magnificent. I can't believe the detail you captured. Way to go. You must be having a ball with that new lens.

Great job.

[virgo1]

Oh Nancy...Beautiful shot and finish. Nice lens. oooo-aaaa :)
Eva ;)

[NMarti]

Kay - thanks - I love to photography any kind of animal. Also got a red-tail hawk today but he was pretty far away and not much to work with.

Norm - thanks. I am having a ball. The eagle was kept about 10 feet away and you were not allowed to use flash so had to rely on auto to help me out but all in all I am so pleased with it. This is the kind of picture I wanted an SLR for and learned to use Elements for. I used to see people post these all the time and say - hey - how did they get a black background??? Well - now I know!

Thanks a lot Eva - am having a ball!

[George Favale]

Hi...
I was just reading about how the Eagles winter in the south part of IL along
the mississippi...I was thinking since I live in Chicago maybe I would venture
down state to see if I could find any.... I will be getting my telephoto next week... So seeing your picture has convinced me to go.... any pointers?

again great shot and very clear....

[NMarti]

George-
Alton IL is the area to see. There is a wildlife refuge just across the river in MO but there is a nest just 100 yards off the highway about a mile down from the visitors center where this eagle was at today. My last eagle was taken at the nest. Start at the visitors center and there is a free trolley tour that takes you to the refuge and then you can venture down the Berm highway to the nest or up the River Road toward Grafton. There are also a lot at the Clarksville dam upriver and the Chain of rocks Bridge down river. Saturday and Sunday are really crowded and eagles stay farther back but tours are only on the weekend so keep that in mind. I drive myself because I live here and am familiar with the area. Mornings 8-10 and evenings 5-7 are best viewing times because they feed then. That's all I can think of for now.:)

[George Favale]

Since I am retired i can go anytime.....

Thank you so much for the info..... if i go on a weekday can i still go where
you suggested even if there is no tour?

Again, thanks

[NMarti]

Yes - it is open to the public. The eagle is only at the center on weekends but the nest is right on the Berm highway and the refuge is just over the Clark bridge so you will be able to find them very easily.
If you need a detailed description of the area you can PM me and I'll give you landmarks, streets, etc.

[Pauline]

Nancy that is gorgeous. The details are amazing!! And I bet removing the extras made all the difference. Your choice of black background is perfect, and I love the thin line border around the outside. It looks elegant. A nice touch, but not too much to be distracting. Wonderful job. I am really enjoying seeing your wonderful work. :)

[Wendy]

Nancy ...

What a great photo and the work you have done on it is just first class ... well done :)

Wendy

[r52228]

Hey Nancy; Great Shot. I know what you mean by arm shake, I too am blessed with it. Most of the time I just put the camera on Sports mode and shoot away. If I want to get fancy, I go to a tripod. Again, good shot on the eagle. Keep up the good work. Bob

[NMarti]

Thanks Bob and Wendy. I actually just replaced the branch because I wasn't happy with the one I had and updated the link. I went out and took a picture of just a branch today to use. Funny what we do to get a great looking picture.

Sports mode - I'll give that a try Bob and see if it helps. May have helped a lot today with the geese and swans I was shooting at the refuge.