{"id":4408,"date":"2012-02-21T15:32:56","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T22:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=4408"},"modified":"2012-02-21T18:57:31","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T01:57:31","slug":"golden-eagle-some-progress-on-a-nemesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/21\/golden-eagle-some-progress-on-a-nemesis\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Eagle – Some Progress On A Nemesis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I have a penchant for raptors and over the last 6 years of photographing them I can count on one hand the number of good opportunities I’ve had with Golden Eagles.\u00a0 I had another chance at one yesterday on Antelope Island.\u00a0 I almost didn’t spot this bird because it was hunkered down\u00a0so far in the sagebrush (here it is standing more erect in anticipation of flight).\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"golden-eagle-3278\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

I knew that my only chance for a\u00a0few decent\u00a0images would\u00a0be at take-off\u00a0or\u00a0just after but the angle of light was a problem – the bird was facing almost directly into the sun.\u00a0 If it veered to its right I’d get\u00a0butt shots and probably lose the head behind the\u00a0wings.\u00a0 If it turned to its left the face would be in shadow and I’d get no catch light.\u00a0 What can you do but wait, be ready for lift-off and hope for the best from a less than ideal situation?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\"golden-eagle-3284\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Thankfully the eagle launched straight ahead which gave me the best light I could hope for under the circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"golden-eagle-3285\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the first wing-beat\u00a0I got light on\u00a0the head and a catch light in two images\u00a0– then the bird turned slightly toward me and that light was lost.\u00a0 I got several more sharp shots with dynamic flight poses but the face was completely shaded.\u00a0 Curses !!!<\/p>\n

I particularly like the good look at the golden crown and nape in this photo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the sun had been more behind me I think\u00a0I might\u00a0have nailed quite a few flight shots that would have vanquished my nemesis.\u00a0 As it\u00a0turned out\u00a0I got two fairly good images that are better than anything\u00a0I have in\u00a0my files on the species.\u00a0 So the way I look at it I’m making progress but my nemesis quest continues…<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I have a penchant for raptors and over the last 6 years of photographing them I can count on one hand the number of good opportunities I’ve had with Golden Eagles.\u00a0 I had another chance at one yesterday on Antelope Island.\u00a0 I almost didn’t spot this bird because it was hunkered down\u00a0so far in the sagebrush (here it is standing more erect in anticipation of flight).\u00a0   \u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc I knew that my only chance for a\u00a0few decent\u00a0images would\u00a0be at take-off\u00a0or\u00a0just after but the angle of light was a problem – the bird was facing almost directly into the sun.\u00a0 If it veered to its right I’d get\u00a0butt shots and probably lose the head behind the\u00a0wings.\u00a0 If it turned to its left the face would be in shadow and I’d get no catch light.\u00a0 What can you do but wait, be ready for lift-off and hope for the best from a less than ideal situation?     \u00a0 \u00a01\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc \u00a0Thankfully the eagle launched straight ahead which gave me the best light I could hope for under the circumstances.\u00a0     \u00a01\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc \u00a0 For the first wing-beat\u00a0I got light on\u00a0the head and a catch light in two images\u00a0– then the bird turned slightly toward me and that light was lost.\u00a0 I got several more sharp shots with dynamic flight poses but the face was completely shaded.\u00a0 Curses !!! I…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,334,337,9,642],"tags":[643,115,153,596,260,644,605],"class_list":["post-4408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-diurnal-raptors","category-favorite-locations","category-golden-eagles","tag-aquila-chrysaetos","tag-eagle","tag-golden-eagle","tag-nemesis","tag-raptor","tag-sagebrush","tag-take-off"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-196","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}