Day 211 - Of light and eagles

One of the wonders of New Brunswick is the abundance of large birds of prey, particularly bald eagles and osprey. I've been lucky enough to get great photographs of both breeds of bird: I got within about 20 feet of a massive eagle while kayaking on the St. John River west of Fredericton and took a good osprey shot in Oromocto, where a pair of osprey have built a nest at the top of a pole in a waterfront park.

There also happen to be two osprey nests near the potato research farm in Fredericton as well as a bald eagle nest. It's quite amazing: the nests themselves are massive and their location means we are quite often blessed with close up sightings of these majestic birds.

Today, I happened to be driving by the eagles' nest and spotted not one but two of the eagles in a nearby tree. I got as close as I could (tramping my way through a muddy field and getting caught in a sudden downpour for my troubles) but the eagles seemed content to give me all the time in the world to get their photo.

The biggest challenge, other than the rain and mud, was the available light. It was an overcast day with the bright, diffuse light of such weather. That meant that the birds were merely dark silhouettes against the bright sky background. I set the Olympus on manual and took more than 50 shots, playing all the time with the shutter speed and aperture to adjust the amount of light I let into the lens.

The top photo shows the result when I overexposed the shot in order to try to get some detail on the birds themselves. As you can see, these are juvenile eagles that have yet to develop the characteristic white head, though they already have the regal pose down! The image (and especially the sky) seems a bit bleached out to me, however.

That's why I've included the second photograph. In this one, I bumped the shutter speed up and closed down the aperture, limiting the amount of light that got into the camera. The grey sky now shows through but the eagles (and the tree upon which they sit) are merely silhouettes with no detail.

Even then, I think I prefer the second photograph. It seems to me more dramtic. Which do you like?