On January 6th this year my shooting buddy (Shutter Release) and I drove out to Rock Island on the Mississippi River, do to the extended cold weather the River had frozen over, so the Eagles were concentrated in certain areas. Using this link http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/Mississippi-River-Project/Education/Eagle-Watching/Eagle-Counts/ we had decided do to time constraints to travel to Lock and Dam No.15.
Air Temperature was a balmy 8 degrees and sunny. The cold helped minimize the haze. We were lucky a couple times as there was a pair that appeared to be showing a juvenile how to fish, did not get those fun to watch.
The ones I did get were not to bad though, (In my humble opinion) All were taken with D500 and Nikon 200-500mm 5.6. shutter started at 1/2000s for the first couple and I bumped to 1/3200s later. I use Auto ISO with no cap. (There are many ways to minimze noise after the fact and I personnely want the shot, I took what Charles Galtzer said about taking pictures to hart, he has a couple of videos for B&H Optic, and no I don't use Cannon products. that is a personnel choice regarding equipment)

All the pictures were edited in Light Room, for crop, highlights and shadows and tonal balance. some masking and sharpening as they were shot in RAW. Metadata is attached so you should be able to see details.

On January 6th this year my shooting buddy (Shutter Release) and I drove out to Rock Island on the Mississippi River, do to the extended cold weather the River had frozen over, so the Eagles were concentrated in certain areas. Using this link http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/Mississippi-River-Project/Education/Eagle-Watching/Eagle-Counts/ we had decided do to time constraints to travel to Lock and Dam No.15.
Air Temperature was a balmy 8 degrees and sunny. The cold helped minimize the haze. We were lucky a couple times as there was a pair that appeared to be showing a juvenile how to fish, did not get those fun to watch.
The ones I did get were not to bad though, (In my humble opinion) All were taken with D500 and Nikon 200-500mm 5.6. shutter started at 1/2000s for the first couple and I bumped to 1/3200s later. I use Auto ISO with no cap. (There are many ways to minimze noise after the fact and I personnely want the shot, I took what Charles Galtzer said about taking pictures to hart, he has a couple of videos for B&H Optic, and no I don't use Cannon products. that is a personnel choice regarding equipment)

All the pictures were edited in Light Room, for crop, highlights and shadows and tonal balance. some masking and sharpening as they were shot in RAW. Metadata is attached so you should be able to see details.

On January 6th this year my shooting buddy (Shutter Release) and I drove out to Rock Island on the Mississippi River, do to the extended cold weather the River had frozen over, so the Eagles were concentrated in certain areas. Using this link http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/Mississippi-River-Project/Education/Eagle-Watching/Eagle-Counts/ we had decided do to time constraints to travel to Lock and Dam No.15.
Air Temperature was a balmy 8 degrees and sunny. The cold helped minimize the haze. We were lucky a couple times as there was a pair that appeared to be showing a juvenile how to fish, did not get those fun to watch.
The ones I did get were not to bad though, (In my humble opinion) All were taken with D500 and Nikon 200-500mm 5.6. shutter started at 1/2000s for the first couple and I bumped to 1/3200s later. I use Auto ISO with no cap. (There are many ways to minimze noise after the fact and I personnely want the shot, I took what Charles Galtzer said about taking pictures to hart, he has a couple of videos for B&H Optic, and no I don't use Cannon products. that is a personnel choice regarding equipment)

All the pictures were edited in Light Room, for crop, highlights and shadows and tonal balance. some masking and sharpening as they were shot in RAW. Metadata is attached so you should be able to see details.