Photos – Thirsty Bald Eagle
If you couldn’t tell, I really enjoy taking photos of animals,especially at Lansing’s Potter Park Zoo. Sure, I’d much rather get shots of animals in the wild, but until then, I can sharpen my skills at PPZ.
Case in point, this bald eagle.
I was at the Zoo for a birthday party (the girlfriend’s nephew), and I set up camp at the bald eagle exhibit. A few weeks prior, I spotted this amazing photo on Flickr of one of the PPZ eagles taking a cool drink. I was hoping I could get a similar photo (although I like the one on Flickr more than any of mine).
More photos of this eagle keeping cool and how I got these shots after the break.
The eagles were not in the pool at first, but I did see one of them walking over to its food dish. So I waited. Eventually, it made its way over to the pool. Patience was the key here.
Thankfully, once the eagle was in the pool, it wasted no time taking a drink.
Kerplunk! Yeah, it was hot. I was wishing I could join the eagle in the pool.
Obviously, I was shooting at a fast shutter speed. This photo was shot at 1/500 sec, with an ISO of 400. I just kept experimenting until I could get the speed I wanted. I knew I wanted to freeze the action and the water as much as I could. Honestly though, most of this was just luck, timing and patience. I regret not using my tripod.
With this shot, and a couple more coming up, I tried cropping in close. I wanted what was going on with the water to be very visible. I like the eagle’s stare in this shot.
Here is a tighter crop of the first photo. I made it black and white (blue channel in Photoshop) to make its ghostly eye lid stick out a bit more. I may like this crop more than the top version. What do you think?
Another shot I cropped in close and made black and white. I like that I caught the eagle in mid-blink and like the shot above, switching to black and white (with the blue color channel) made the eye lid more visible. I never knew bald eagles had side eye lids like this before taking these shots.
More photos next week–see ya on Monday.
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That eyelid is called a nictitating membrane. Great shots. I actually think your first shot with the water in mid-air is better than the one on flickr. More motion. More dynamic. Nice job!
Thanks! I appreciate the feedback, and for explaining the eyelid thing
I love these shots. That 3rd eyelid (I think) is known as a nictating membrane that flicks over the eyeball every time the Eagle blinks and acts as a windshield wiper. Dogs and cats have them too as you may have realized if you’ve picked them up from the Vet’s after anesthesia…or when they’re really snoozing on the couch with you and you try to move them.
Nice capture of it.
Acts as a windshield wiper, huh? Now I kinda wish I had that too! Thanks for the feedback
very nice pictures!
Thanks!
These photos are really crisp. What camera did you use?
A Canon Rebel T2i. I love it.
I like yours better than the one on flickr as well. These are great Daniel!
Thanks Linda
wow, what a cool shots.
thanks!