Douglas L
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On
|
BillinTexas wrote:
I'm loving all of the eagle images, Douglas. Is this Conowingo?
Thank you Bill. Yes, it's Conowingo. I live 65 miles from there. It's been a really slow season this year, except for a few days, like Sunday, Dec. 7 (I wasn't there), Tue, Dec 9 (I was there), and Friday, Dec 12. I have been there 5 times this season, including two of the three days with decent/good actions. My definition of a decent day is 6-8 fishing episodes and mid air food fight, at relatively closer distance so I don't have to crop away 80-90% of the frame to show anything interesting. I follow the Conowingo Dam Eagles FB group where people give reports of their visits. I also have local FB friends who frequently go to the dam and let me know how it went.
Other than the general season, there is absolutely no pattern on the activities of the eagles, sometimes you sit there for a day only to see 4 or 5 fishing episodes, some of which could be pretty far away on the other side of the wide river. Sometimes it can go crazy, like last Friday. The viewing area is very long, sometimes you see different actions in different parts. It can be a good day for someone who is at the right place at the right time, or it can be a non productive day for someone who stands at the wrong place at the wrong time. There are long standing jokes that as soon as you leave or go to the restroom, the eagles will come out.  . Many photographers from out of state or even from other countries show up primarily to photograph eagles snatching fish out of the water and the mid air food fight. I feel sorry for folks who travel a long way to Conowingo only to see little action during their stay. It can be disappointing after spending the money and time if it's not your lucky day.
Shoot me a pm if you need more information. For the most part, the longer the lens, the higher the camera's resolution (for cropping), the better. They do come closer occasionally, like the food fight series I recently posted, the pictures were shot between 590mm-630mm, then slightly cropped. I know a guy who was using 600mm (prime) +2XTC to shoot the same series, he could only fit one eagle in his frame for the same scene. I give him credit for even being able to find the bird in the view finder at 1200mm focal length. I used to shoot my 600 f4+1.4TC at Conowingo but I have been using the 400-800 this year. F8 is not an issue if the light is good. The main issue is the messy bokeh if the eagle is not far away enough from the background.
In general, there are two seasons, mid Nov to the end of Dec, and March and April, which are much warmer and have longer day light hours to shoot.
A few more from the two visits last week.
ILCE-1M2 FE 400-800mm F6.3-8 G OSS lens 780mm f/8.0 1/3200s 500 ISO -1.7 EV
ILCE-1M2 FE 400-800mm F6.3-8 G OSS lens 800mm f/8.0 1/3200s 800 ISO -1.7 EV
ILCE-1M2 FE 400-800mm F6.3-8 G OSS lens 800mm f/8.0 1/2500s 1250 ISO -1.3 EV
ILCE-1M2 FE 400-800mm F6.3-8 G OSS lens 800mm f/8.0 1/2500s 1250 ISO -1.0 EV
ILCE-1M2 FE 400-800mm F6.3-8 G OSS lens 800mm f/8.0 1/2000s 1600 ISO -1.0 EV
ILCE-1M2 FE 400-800mm F6.3-8 G OSS lens 800mm f/8.0 1/2000s 1250 ISO -1.0 EV
|
