Eagle Through the Trees

I'd like to think I know what I'm doing.  Or sometimes have a little more luck than I'm entitled.  The truth is often somewhere in between.
First, the restrictions on Michiganders have been reduced.  I can go out and about, solo.  And that is a good start.  And this evening was a nice one.  Perfect time for a few breaths of fresh air with the Park Eagle family.
And this evening was a good time.  While waiting for the Eagles to do something, anything, my little area was visited by a wood pecker.  How neat.  And I saw a muskrat swimming less than 10 feet away from me.  I was blending with Nature.  
It was so nice and quiet.  One small duck flew past me so close I could hear the wings flapping.  Serious.  And later in the story, the Eagle flew close to overhead of me, I could hear its wings as well.
To the Eagle chapter.
I was in my watching spot for about 45 minutes tonight.  As to the primary action, the Eagle first showed up from somewhere I didn't expect.  Usually the Eagles approach the nest from above, or higher than the nest.  The tend to land, like an airplane, coming down.  Not this evening.  The approach was from below the nest.  This approach came from out of the lower trees.  No time for camera, but very cool to see.  I'm guessing that this was the shift egg sitter doing some close by wing stretching.  Usually where there are two Eagles in the nest area, one usually leaves and sits close by.  In this case, after the Eagle arrived, I never saw it in the nest.  Optical lines.  I've also noticed that the Eagles usually don't leave the nest in a quick manor.  They will stand on the edge of the nest, look around, test the wind and go.  And this evening, that was not the case.  One move out of the nest and it was coming in my direction.  I was lucky to get that 6 pounds of glass pointed in the right direction.
I did get a few good shots, more than I missed.  But this one is the winner for me this evening.  Not because of the subject, but because....   Going back tot he beginning, I'd like to think I know what I'm doing.
I usually shoot with single point auto focus.  Today, was a bit different.  Tonight I was using Dynamic Area AF 9 points.  All cameras have some form of this.  So, I had a good lock on the Eagle out of the nest.  The D780 and monster lens locked on FAST.  And the AF worked fine, even with this tree trying to photo bomb the picture.  Focus Tracking with Lock On.  Sure, I left the defaults in, but it worked.  The AF kept the lock through the tree.
This is awesome.

Eagle Through the Trees

NIKON D780 Ver.01.00/200-500mm f/5.6E

270 mm, 1/1,000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 180 (AUTO)

MANUAL Mode, Size FX

For the things I didn't do right, I left a lot of lens in the bag.  This is aggressively cropped.  The the D780 could handle it.  Looks great on the monitor.  Eye is sharp.  Miracle shot?  Or lucky?  Or somewhere in between?

Pelican on Nav Aid 5 (2009)

While looking at old posts, one that stirred a few memories was from 2010, Birds on a Piling.  The photo is from a trip we took to the Carolina in August of 2009.  During the trip, we spent a day around Fort Fisher.  Which included a car ferry ride between the starting point and destination.  Which is short for all I know is a boat was involved.
If I recall, the ferry ride was about 45 minutes, with 30 minutes out of the car.  Lots of interesting 'subjects' along the way.
Some of these photos are fun to revisit.  The camera was a D80 and a kit lens.  Great for vacation photography.  It's interesting to look at the 'quality' of the shot compared to the sensors of today.
The D80 is a 10 MP versus the D500 21 MP.  10 MP and a kit lens.  Someone say resolution?
I always hear that no matter the equipment, a good photographer is a good photographer.  I'm going with that is true.  But in the 2008, 2009 years I was anything but good.  
In the 2020s however, the software can help.

Pelican on Nav Aid #5

NIKON D80/18.0-135.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

95 mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

Apparently this was shot in AUTO mode.  Was I ever that young?  Ha.
#itsaboutthejourney

Real Blast from the Past - CSX Car

The original post:  CSX Car.
Date of the post?  February 15, 2011.  Date of the photograph?  August 14, 2008.
I was just a child.  
Camera?  D80.  Lens?  Some kit lens.  Major software?  Elements and Photomatix.  Philosophy?  Luck.  I had a Nikon and I was on a roll.
As this is a blog of my photographic journey, my self imposed rules forbid me to delete any post.  The paying job will keep me up late tonight - way into the hours of Sunday morning.  So to pass some time, drifted back through the early day of the blog.  The cameras, the processing and stuff I was proud to post.

FYI - This image was added by a link to somewhere deep in Google.  Not sure if I'm impressed or scared.
Fortunately, I was shooting RAW at this time.  The fact I was shooting RAW should not be inferred to that I knew what I was doing at the time.  This may not be far from the truth that I didn't like what the JPG output looked like.  So it was RAW.  There was a time when I bounced back and forth between RAW and JPG.  Lucky for me, at this time I was shooting RAW.  This allows me to revisit the file.
This photo does have meaning for me.  I thought it was just another travel photo.  In the early days, my (over) use of HDR was not a favorite of the photo club.  I get it.  One, I was doing it way overboard.  Two, it was new and different.  But one of the club elders told me this was the best photo I submitted, based on subject.  He wasn't a fan of the post processing as much although this shot didn't offend him as most of my efforts had.  That meant a lot to me.  
The photo was clearly put through Photomatix.  My photo processing history system was in its infancy in those days, like all I have is the RAW file and the finished JPG.  Space must have been at a premium.  Now, I have JPGs of just about all the steps that are not in the PSD file.  
This photo was taken while we were on the Covered Bridge Tour, which is a layout of the covered bridges in Somerset County.  Looking at all the photos, I could tell my abilities at the time were suspect at best.  Seriously, every photo has a blown sky.  Every one.  HDR saved this sky.  Seriously, every photo.
So, can today's software save yesteryear's errors?  
I didn't want to use HDR on this one, because it's not in my normal workflow these days.  These days, it is mostly PS with some assists to Topaz DeNoise and Sharpen.  If I wanted to take this project any father than the blog, I'd replace the sky.  But for this exercise, I was able to get some definition out of the file.  And I'll crop most of the sky out.

CSX Engine - 2008

NIKON D80/18.0-135.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

75 mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 125

The rail bed is much easier on the eyes.
This was fun.  The journey - Defined.

Two at the Eagle's Nest

This is one stray branch away from being an absolutely awesome photograph.
This is from Friday afternoon.  I'm getting a lot of work on adding some light to the shadows.  The sun was giving off good light, but at a 90 degree angle.
The bird was coming in for a landing, and the wings were used to slow down the action.  Nice soft landing.  Big wings.  And big wings blocking the light on the bird's head.  And a branch in the way.
I'm getting pretty good at removing objects, but won't try with this branch.  Too much of the Eagle's eye would be slightly altered and I'd have to re-build a lot of it.  So, its a 99% er.  I'll just have to go back some evening to get the last 1%.
In this light the shadows are pretty stark.  I had to add some artificial light n a few places.  It's all part of the journey.

Two in the Nest

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6

615 MM, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800 (AUTO)

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

There is a pretty aggressive crop here.  And it still passes the screen saver test.

Picking up from 2019 - Eagle Watching

While it is still legal to leave the house, but socially frowned on, I took off for the park for about 45 minutes after work today.  Last year I'd spend the 6:00 hour at my Eagle watch spot.  Today, I did the same.  Took the D500 and 200-500 combo.  Max reach.
At around 6:20, I saw one Eagle to the north circling around.  Sure enough the Eagle was on approach.  Approaching from the north is not the best angle for me, but I'll work with it.  From what I can tell, it was bringing in fresh straw, no critters for dinner.  Constant nest upkeep.
This isn't easy, but it is nice when the weather cooperates.  And my watching area is way off the people path.  Social distancing easily enforced,
There is a disk golf course on one side of the nest.  Last year, people would yell, play music and generally have a good time around the nest.  The Park Eagles keep coming back.  I keep playing that in contrast of the Nature preserve that limits the drive through the area due to the Eagle's nest there to a few months a year.  I get it, the Preserve does what it does, and I support it.  Anyway, the Park Eagles seem to be doing well.
I missed a number of shots this evening.  My stand is surrounded by a lot of brush.  There is a limited shooting area.  And in front of the nest, and a lot of the perch branches.  In the end, there are probably better places.  But not in this area, that I know of.  I missed a number of shots, more than usual.  The culprit?  Well, me of course.  But I had two contributing factors.  The first is the weight of the monster lens.  My shutter speed is fast enough to overcome lens shudder.  But when that happens, the view through the lens is too shaky for me.  That's just funny.  The other culprit is the AF mode I was using.  I need to get a smaller focus point.  I've been using the group setting, and it should be single.  Too many branches for a wider AF focus area.  When I got the lock right, all worked as advertised.  And the learn - I need to get a tri-pod system for this.  Preferably with a gimbal head.  Yea, it would have limited some of the shots, but the shots in front of me may have a better hit rate.  But it is early in the Eagle watching season.  The current climate will make it more difficult to get out every day, we'll just have to see how it goes from here.
I think I have five or six keepers out of 30 or so that were technically correct.  I think I had 90 shots, with 40 or so of the Eagles.  It was a good outing.
Two of the best in my opinion.
In this shot, the Eagle had left the nest padding and was promptly dismissed by the egg sitter.  The Eagle flew over to a close branch.  I had to move a bit, as a branch was between the lens and subject.  And it was enough.  This is the Eagle taking flight from the branch.  The sun is just about 90 degrees at this time.  There was some lighting of the shadows.

Eagle Jump Flight

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6

750 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320 (AUTO)

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

All I could think of after this was, OMG, I didn't &^$ this up!
This next shots is a few seconds later when the glide has been established.  I have a sequence of these that stayed in focus.  (Clearly a mistake somewhere?) This has the best sunlight.

Eagle Sunlight Glide

NIKON D500 Ver.1.20/200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6

750 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320 (AUTO)

MANUAL Mode, Size DX

I like the wing tips and the light in the tail feathers.  The branches are OK, especially with a solid blue sky.  
There was very little cropping in both images.  The monster lens did what it was supposed to do.