There are, without a doubt, excellent camera stores who have featured mail order services.

But it occurred to me that we still need to endorse our -local- camera stores, especially if they have an excellent reputation.

To begin, I'd like to endorse Schiller's Camera store here in St. Louis, here for more than 100 years, and outstanding staff. I've purchased my Canon 5DII from them, and along with that 3 L series lenses. They are always my "go to" store, not only for the equipment, but also for opinions and advice. I know all of you would agree with me in saying that we NEED to support our local camera stores. So I'm beginning that here with: www.schillers.com

I hope no one minds my beginning thread.

Hi, UHH members,

I'm a new forum member but have been reading the forum Q & A section for almost a year now, so I think (hope) I'm fairly familiar with how things work here.

Some of you have been very helpful by answering how-to and equipment-specific questions from others that have helped me quite a bit and now I have a question / request of my own that I haven't seen asked and answered in the posts I've reviewed: Are there any members here from the Phoenix, AZ area (specifically, the east valley, around Mesa and Apache Junction) that can offer one or two decent locations for spotting and photographing bald eagles?

I routinely hike Lost Dutchman State Park on the weekends and have seen my share of deer, rattlesnakes and hawks, but never a bald eagle. I've recently been going to a section of the Salt River, near the Phon D Sutton parking area and just by chance, spotted a pair of beautiful bald eagles about a month ago, but just as I got the camera turned around, they were off and on the other side of a hill; not to be seen again. I've been back to the same site three times and just sit with my gear set up and waiting (3-4 hours at a stretch) for them to come back, but haven't seen them since. My preference would be stay close to the east valley area and although I've researched nearby bald eagle sightings and where their nests are (or have been in the past), still no luck in my last three outings. (I've seen and photographed quite a few wild horses in the area as well.)

I'm not sure if this info matters based on my request above, but I'm a novice photographer who loves taking nature shots and just took the dive into the DSLR world within the last year. I moved 'up' from a Canon SX50HS bridge camera to a Nikon D3300 and the typical 18-55 and 70-300mm kit lenses in early 2017, and because of the number of websites, YouTube videos and other instructional information I've absorbed, I graduated to a Nikon D5600 next. Due to a limited budget, I primarily carry Tamron 18-400 and Tamron 150-600mm (G1) lenses in my kit. I have my sights set on a D500 and am renting a Sigma 150-600mm Sports lens this week to see just how much of a difference I think it makes in the long range shots I take. (I wish it weren't the case, but a long range prime lens is not really in the cards.)

Any advice on a few decent sections of the east valley area I mentioned above would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!