Rising to the Perch

[Doug Schurman]

A Bald Eagle after having consumed an American Coot flew over the water and swooped up to land on a high perch. This was way out. I estimated it was 70 - 80 yards. I was testing out the new 7D2 and had the 600 ft with 2x tele on. This made for a FOV of 1,920mm. I snapped 21 shots in 4 seconds and the camera did a great job of maintaining focus.

1200mm, F8, 1/3200, ISO 640, Tripod

[Diane Miller]

Wow!! Amazing anything can find focus with the limited DOF at that magnification! And, to me, this is amazing focus, especially for a BIF! I haven't had a chance to try mine with anything moving yet.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow Doug a 600 ft lens takes some handling eh? No seriously this is an outstanding image the colours are superb, the pose is to die for and the light couldn't have been better. I can imagine your elation when you got the files opened on your PC. A really super image well done.

[keith mitchell]

That is one very dynamic shot Doug, colours lift the whole image,like this a lot.

Keith.

[Bill Dix]

Super flight shot, with the perfect light angle and pleasing bg. Well exposed in whites and darks. Maybe just a tad tight in the frame for my taste, but a fabulous frame.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Doug, great angle here, and you have managed an excellent flight pose. Well exposed on the underwings, sharp, and I like the different colours to the sky BG. Well captured.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The details have held up remarkably well. Excellent ascending pose. A bit tight in the framer for me too, and as posted I'd clean up the bit of blue peeking in at the upper right corner.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very nice one!
And those details are impressive for such magnification! so glad to see that the new 7D performes so well. Love the light in this one and the nice bird of course.

[Bob Smith]

Wow!! Just out of curiosity, what is the background---I'm gonna guess a treed hillside.

[Iain Barker]

Great image Doug. I love it.

[Robert Kimbrell]

Impressive image Doug. You should be pleased, Very good focus. Which auto focus case did you take this in?

[Doug Schurman]

Thanks everyone for the high praise. I really appreciate it. I've attached the uncropped frame which I suspect some of you prefer it to be a little looser than my original. It was a bit of luck to get the bird this size in the frame. I had a few of my frames after this and before where there was some clipping of body parts.

Bob, you are correct the back ground is trees on a hillside.

Robert, I used custom settings for the tracking of
Tracking Sensitivity = -2
Accel / Decel = 0
AF point swtch = 0

[Satish Ranadive]

Absolutely superb image with wonderful details, beautiful colors and sky.
Love the wing position and fanned tail feathers.

Regards,
Satish.