Bald Eagle Eating Fish - Gore warning

[Frankie]

The Conowingo Dam along the Susquehenna River in Darlington, MD is a stop-off for dozens of migrating Bald Eagles. When the spillways are open, the fish come through, making fishing a lot easier. There are also a few resident eagles; however, between November and December, there can be up to 100 eagles hanging around taking advantage of the plentiful fish. These eagles, unlike like the pair in my backyard, are far from skittish and do not shy away from humans. They will get their fish and then perch in the tress that line the parking lot and eat their fish. This place has become very well-known to nature photographers so that during this migratory time, it's like Bald Eagle Paparazzi with the dozens of photographers and the massive lenses trying to get that perfect shot.

Here are a few shots of an eagle in a tree eating its lunch. Yes, there is some gore, but that's part of nature...

These shots were challenging since I'm looking up into the tree and having to fight the bright sky and shadowing. I've played around a lot with these trying to get the levels right. In doing so, I pretty much lost the blue color to the sky, but I think the colors of the bird and the tree are far more realistic.

C&C highly encouraged and appreciated!

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Thank you for viewing
frankie

[risingwolf]

Nice pictures. We used to have 700+ eagles stopping in Glacier NP to feed on the spawning Kokanee salmon (introduced to Flathead lake around 1914). In the 60's the state introduced a Mysis shrimp for the salmon to feed on but the shrimp ate the salmons main food source the Daphnia. The result of the introduction is no daphnia, no kokanee and no eagles stopping in the fall.
Rule one = Don't mess with Mother Nature

[Donald]

Frankie

Like you say, the challenge was the sky. I think the first one, in particular, is a goner because the sky is completely gone and it's quite harsh on the eyes to view it.

[Shadowman]

It's not the feeding frenzy that can be upsetting, it's the look of anguish in the prey's eyes the moment before the end.

[Harpo]

Frankie- where exactly is this place that photographers flock to? I live upstream 30 minutes from the dam and have been wondering where people say the eagles are.

[FrankMi]

Hi Frankie! In this situation where you know the sky is going to be a wash, I'd shoot to get the exposure of the subject and everything else but the sky as close as possible, then replace the sky with one that is more like what you actually saw in post processing. To get the replacement sky, simply back away from the tree and, using the same direction and elevation, get a few sky shots. This also works for other backgrounds where the lighting is tricky. Some days you just can't get it all in one shot.

http://www.digital-photography-schoo...y-in-photoshop

Hope this helps!