Bald Eagle Headshot
Sep, 2017Views
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Awards
Action Award
Zenith Award
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Top Shot Award 21
Fall Award 2020
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
Virtuoso
Genius
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This picture was taken at the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary in Ketchikan, AK. The particular eagle shown had had its wing injured as a chick, and so spent its whole life at the sanctuary.Time
We were out at the sanctuary around mid-day, this image in particular was taken a little past one.Lighting
As typical for Alaska, it was sprinkling a little and generally overcast when I took the picture, which made for some gorgeous even lighting. I did struggle, however, with keeping the eye exposed correctly without losing detail in the feathers.Equipment
This was shot on a Canon Rebel T5i with a Tamron 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 lens. No tripod or flash.Inspiration
One of my favorite parts about this image is that while I was able to take it in a bit more controlled environment than finding an eagle entirely in the wild, which allowed me to get tighter framing in the image, this eagle is still fundamentally a wild animal - it wasn't caged up in a zoo or stuck in too small an enclosure. While at the sanctuary I also got some other great pictures of birds, bear, and reindeer, but this one is definitely my favorite of all of them.Editing
I did pull the exposure down just a tad in post, to try and get some of the details in the feathers back. I also artificially added the dark background by bringing up the blacks in the image.In my camera bag
I always carry my T5i rebel body and Tamron 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 lens, and generally also carry a Canon 50 mm f/1.8. The zoom on the Tamron is essential for getting up close with an animal without disturbing it or putting myself in danger, while the Canon 50 mm is great for landscapes and wider images. Alongside my camera I keep an air blaster and about a million extra lens caps, because I'm overly paranoid about sensor dust and losing lens caps.Feedback
Above all, be patient. I watched this bird for probably 45 minutes before I got a really great shot - even once you have an animal in sight, it takes time to get the perfect pose. At the same time, be ready to capitalize on an opportunity at any moment; a lot of times, an animal will only stay still for a few seconds, which doesn't give you a whole lot of time to shoot. Similar to street photography, I usually try to pre-focus my camera, so that I don't need to wait for autofocus to catch up (and inevitably focus on the tree behind the bird instead of the bird). I also generally get all my camera settings calibrated in advance, meaning that I take some images of the animal without worrying about position and just get the right exposure.
