1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nFour years ago, on September 9, 2016, I found this immature Golden Eagle perched on a large rock at the base of a mountain in a remote area of northern Utah. After ‘he’ took off I took a long series of photos of him in flight but he was fairly far away and close to the side of the mountain so I had considerable difficulty maintaining sharp focus on the bird. These two photos are some of the sharper shots I managed to get and they’re both new to my blog.<\/p>\n
As he flew past patches of blooming rabbitbrush, sunflowers and tall dead grasses with varying amounts of contrast to the bird my active focus point was confused even more so I consider myself lucky to get these two reasonably sharp photos among many softer ones..<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n
Three frames in the burst later the background was becoming mostly light colored dead grasses so with the eagle being so dark it increased the contrast between bird and background. That helped a little with autofocus accuracy, even with the background so close to the bird. If you compare the feet in both photos you’ll see more detail in the second shot than in the first.<\/p>\n
Golden Eagles are uncommon and except for an occasional eagle high on an ugly utility pole that allows a close approach they’re damn near impossible to get close to. They may in fact be the wildest and least approachable bird species I try to photograph around here.<\/p>\n
Throw their absolute magnificence into the equation and you have one of my most prized photo subjects, even when the resulting photos aren’t quite as sharp and detailed as I prefer.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A short series.<\/p>\n
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