[Leica] Eagles at Otter Bay

[cummer at netvigator.com (H&E Cummer)]

Hi Luggers,
I have not posted pictures to the LUG for a few weeks - grand parenting 
duties with Aubrey, aka "Hank the Tank", and
several house guests have kept me and Esther extra busy.Still, the pictures 
have been accumulating
and I thought I would open a new Eagle 2014 Folder to show a few of my 
better ones.
These were all taken with the Nikon D800E and the 80 - 400 VR zoom lens - 
hand held -
processed in CS 6. Last week we have a fellow photographer visiting and I 
took him
down to the Otter Bay ferry terminal to feed and photograph the eagles. The 
birds' reaction
was unusual. They came when whistled for, but they only circled the salmon 
strips and
did not swoop in to snatch them up. The only variable from the ordinary was 
the
presence of my visitor and I guess his being there made the eagles more 
cautious.
The circling made for some fine photo opportunities.

First an eagle fly by over water:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/1410.jpg.html>

and then against the forest background:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/1310.jpg.html>

Flying in to inspect the salmon strips:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/1146.jpg.html>

Turning just over my head:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/_DSC1172.jpg.html>

And swooshing by:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/_DSC1175.jpg.html>

For the last two photos I racked the lens back to 185mm but it wasn't far 
enough
to have the full body of the eagle in the frame. These last two photos are 
full frame - no cropping.

I have just taken delivery of a used, but not abused, Nikon D4 body and I 
hope that
my focus success rate will go up with this 10fps pro body compared to the 
5fps D800E. 

Stay tuned.

Howard (on hot sunny dry Pender Island).