American Bald Eagle

American Bald Eagle

Image of the Week

Majestic Bald Eagle

I can only hope that everyone has an opportunity to see a american bald eagle in the wild at some point in their life. Although there are many places to see them in captivity, there really is no comparison. Eagles are generally captive due to injury, and not being able to be released back to the wild. This changes their behavior and presence. Once you see an american bald eagle in the wild, it can actually be difficult to see them in captivity.

I do feel that for educational purposes, a captive american bald eagle can help to build an awareness of them, and help people to understand them better. These efforts can only help with eagle conservation.

This photo was taken at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. It is common to see an american bald eagle in the area of the refuge, but you have to keep your eyes open. On a good day, you may see a few eagles. This one was very considerate in posing for me. More often than not, when an eagle flies away, you won’t see them again, or for a considerable amount of time. This one flew between three trees in a small area. Every time it flew off, it returned to one of the trees and sat for a while. Each time, I had many opportunities for photos and video.

Image Considerations

Taking photos of any wildlife takes patience. Trying to take quality bald eagle pictures can test the patience of anyone. I have watched them sit totally still on a branch for more than an hour. Just waiting and hoping they move at all. When they do move, it can be very quick, and you need to be ready to capture an interesting head position or body movement. If you take your eye off of them for a moment, you may miss the bald eagle picture you were waiting for.

Image Lighting

One of the challenges of trying to take quality bald eagle pictures is you are often viewing them against a bright sky. Getting the exposure correct to capture a generally dark bird against the bright sky creates some challenges. At least some level of over exposure is needed to not have the bald eagle possibly be a dark shadow in the image. This is where exposure compensation will work in your favor. This was taken mid morning in February, so the sun was not directly overhead. In this frame, the eagle was facing toward the sun, which put nice light on it.

Camera and Settings

I shot this with my Canon 1Ds Mk III and Canon 100-400mm L IS USM with Canon 1.4x III Extender. Although the lens and extender combination gives a maximum of 560mm, I shot this at 475mm. I wanted to be sure the entire bald eagle fit nicely in a vertical shot, with enough room to crop if needed. With only the blue sky in the background, the aperture was only a factor to get as much light as possible. There were no DOF considerations. I used ISO 500 as a minimum to ensure a higher shutter speed so I would have no doubt about freezing any motion if the eagle moved quickly.

  • 475mm
  • f/8
  • 1/3,200th
  • +0.3 exposure bias
  • ISO 500

Editing Inspiration

I selected this bald eagle photo specifically out of a few hundred frames taken that morning. It had the right combination of head position and details in the feathers. I was lucky to even get a nice catch light from the sun. My post processing goal was to bring out the rich colors and details in the body and wing feathers, while also emphasizing the head feathers. In many bald eagle pictures, the head feathers appear smooth. Although this can be a natural appearance, it doesn’t allow the viewer to really understand how many details there can be in these small head feathers. In this capture, the details were all their thanks to the head position and a slight breeze. I only had to bring them out.

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