Eagle Watch

Last weekend we had an opportunity to view some Bald Eagles in Claverack, NY.

I knew that I was going to need some reach in getting the eagles.  I brought the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 zoom and Canon 2x III Tele-converter to reach out as far as I could.  I was conflicted with which body to take, so I took both the Canon 5D Mark IV and the Canon 7D Mark II.  The full frame 5D would give me the density I needed, but the 7D would give me the 1.6x crop factors.

When we got there I saw that I could probably reach with the 400mm combo, so I mounted up the 5D and hoped I only had to crop a little bit.  Some worked out very well, some I had to crop more than I wanted.  But overall, I think I got some good photos.

f/5.6, ISO 1000, 1/2000th

f/8, ISO 1000, 1/800th

f/8, ISO 1000, 1/800th

This is my favorite of all.  I was snapping photos of both eagles when one flew off.  Fortunately the autofocus tracked him pretty well and I laid my finger on the shutter at 8 frames per second.

f/8, ISO 1000, 1/800th

This is the previous picture full size.