Look what I saw yesterday!!

[Kevin Scott]

Sorry to be so excited but it was the first time I've shot a Bald Eagle in the wild! I went to a new place to check it out on Sunday. I just had gotten out of the car and walked over to the boat ramp and saw this almost directly overhead:

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I only got about 6-7 shots of him. Then he took off and never returned. There was another bald eagle off to the right but too far away. He dive bombed into the lake, then took off. I was kind of disappointed that they didn't return and there wasn't really much of anything else there to shoot. But I kept thinking to myself "Yeah, but I got a Bald Eagle!" It's very exciting.

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I know the head is a little blown but I don't care!

 

[PEPPER PETE]

Hey Kevin, I sure would like to get one like you did. Good shooting.
Pete

 

[greyflash]

Excellent images Kevin. Way to go.

 

[jfenton]

Pretty darned good for a boat ramp shot

 

[Gale]

Good going Kevin,

They certainly are exciting to see. Getting pic is another challenge.

What a grand bird.

 

[DiverX]

Man, would love to have a crack at these one day. You did a very good job, good for you and from a boat ramp? :lol:
Go figure, congrats on the catch!!!

 

[Kevin Scott]

Thanks everyone! I felt very fortunate to not only get the shots but even just to see this magnificent bird. I neglected to mention that these were with the 300 and 1.4x. 1st was a slight crop off right and the 2nd uncropped. Gives you an idea of how close he really was with the view through the HSC markings in the viewfinder. Was set for manual and didn't have a chance to manipulate the settings and went with what I had used while shooting on the way into the park.

This was at Lake Kissimmee which is the 3rd largest lake in Florida. Just south of here is a Wildlife Management Area that boasts the largest concentration of nesting bald eagles in the lower 48. Not sure about that...drove around for hours and barely saw any birds. Put over 200+ miles on yesterday.

But, like I said, all that was worth it just to have a couple of eagle keeper shots, blown heads or not!

Thanks for looking.

 

[drueter]

Congrats on a great capture, Kevin!! An awesome bird.

 

[Thos Quinn]

Ya know, given the color scheme of bald eagles, they could be aptly called the "easy to blow out the head and tail" eagle. Good job on the etbothat eagle.

 

[Kevin Scott]

Thanks Don and Thos! Appreciate you looking.

 

[sbuttrick]

Excellent shots Kevin. You nailed the exposure!

 

[bfjr]

Man an Eagle in the wild, now I'm Jealous
and great shots to boot !!

 

[Flew]

Kevin,

Excellent captures. You don't have to tell me about Eagles and excitement. I got my first shots in the wild back in Feb of this year. I was with a bunch of other photog's waiting for one of the parents from a nesting pair to return. Suddenly someone shouted 'there he comes!!'. I almost passed out, and it was very difficult to get a good track with the tears that were welling up in my eyes. It still gives me chills. 8)

 

[Kevin Scott]

Thanks Scott, Ben & Frank! They are very majestic birds. And it is really exciting seeing them in the wild. I can only imagine what it would be like in Alaska seeing them flying all over the place!

 

[james thiel]

Congratulations Kevin. The bald eagle is the whole reason I got into this bird photography in the first place. They are amazing birds and not easy to photograph so you did great.

 

[Kevin Scott]

Thanks Jim for the kind words!

 

[Greg]

Good shot, better than what I have...so far.