In one of the luckiest moments I have experience in many years of wildlife photography, the circumstances came together almost perfectly. I was at Tuckahoe/Corbin-City Wildlife Management Area in southern New Jersey with my father in fall of 2014. We were driving around the road through the open marsh areas when we saw an adult Bald eagle flying off in the distance. This was the fourth eagle we spotted that morning so I immediately hopped out of the car with the hope that the eagle would fly nearby. This is where the luck comes into play. The Bald Eagle begins to fly directly towards the parked car and us. It comes right out in front of us (in decent morning light) and begins to circle around. This alone gives us both a great opportunity for flight shots. All of a sudden the eagle makes a hard turn on dives in for a fish. Now this bird could have flown in any direction but it chose to fly directly parallel to the road we were standing on which allowed us to photograph the entire fishing sequence. Of course it could have flown from left to right and the sun would have been more in it's eyes and it was also an unsuccessful attempt for the eagle but holy crap, it was right in front of us. The best part in my opinion was how strangely calm it was that morning. If you have even been to any open shore/marsh area you know how rare it is to have basically no wind. On this morning it was dead calm and it allowed me to get these beautiful reflections of a Bald Eagle fishing.
Two thoughts here Ray...one is that the images are wonderful...and two, that the story on its own is enough to make this a memorable experience even if you had left the camera at home....very cool!
Eric
Jan 27, 2015 at 04:56 PM
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