Eagle Mating

[Steve Patterson]

We had a pair of Bald Eagles mating in the front yard today. Glad I got off a few shots because guy eagles are very fast. We were wondering when eagles mate, and now we know...the 24th of February.

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Good timing! The forked tree makes for an interesting compositional element here.

The light was high and fairly harsh based on the shadows. You might be able to recover some more detail in the shadows. The whites on the heads look pretty hot.

I might consider removing the sharp stump touching the lower birds primaries.

Dramatic action, calling pose of male great.

Cheers

Randy

[Steve Patterson]

Steve:

Good timing! The forked tree makes for an interesting compositional element here.

The light was high and fairly harsh based on the shadows. You might be able to recover some more detail in the shadows. The whites on the heads look pretty hot.

I might consider removing the sharp stump touching the lower birds primaries.

Dramatic action, calling pose of male great.

Cheers

Randy

Thanks, Randy.....it was early morning (about 8:30), but very bright and contrasty. I did do some shadow recovery, but felt more was washing out the image. It was just a contrasty shot, and I could only do so much. The whites showed as just below being blown when I was done. Not much time to do anything but shoot here...the whole event was only a few seconds.
Thanks for taking the time to have a look.

[Art Kornienko]

Are there any additional details you could post for the equipment and shot.

[Steve Patterson]

Are there any additional details you could post for the equipment and shot.

Sure....this was shot on a canon 40D with a 100-400 lens. 1/320s f/10@235mm iso 400
-1/3 exposure Very little done to this shot. Some cropping, sharpening (shot in RAW), a little curves and a little shadow recovery.

I heard screeching early Thursday morning and looked out to see 2 eagles sitting in the top of a large white pine. We often have eagles around, but not usually in pairs. My wife and I were wondering when eagles mate, as we assumed they were a mating pair, but then left to do other things. One of the eagles flew away and the other stayed and preened in the sun (cold winter morning in northern Minnesota). I set up a camera, but it was pretty boring...just stock portaits. Then the other eagle returned so I zoomed out so I wouldn't clip anything with two birds in the frame, and almost right away they mated. I got off about 6 shots and all come out pretty well. The whole "act' was only a few seconds, with the male screeching the whole time. He was pretty proud of himself. It was pretty exciting to see.