One More Trip to Conowingo

Once again I had Friday off from work and the weather was good and I went to the dam. Parking this time of year is scarce there, so I left home really early and arrived at 6:20 and got one of the few remaining parking spots. More importantly the spot I wanted by the fence to shoot from was already crowded. I had to settle for the concrete balcony.

I wore 3 layers of shirts and my army Goretex field jacket and was still cold. The temperature was only about 35F but the wind and proximity to water made it uncomfortable.

I've never seen so many eagles before. They weren't in the trees by the parking lot or on the electrical towers, but they were everywhere on the far shore. At times there were swarms of eagles flying around. All day long there were eagle fishing events and attempted fish thefts. And they were all way too far away for good shots. But I got some keepers in spite of the distance, and here are a few of them.

Sadly I did a poor job with the fish fights. Most of them happened quite far away with busy backgrounds. Keeping them in focus and well-exposed at that distance was a job that I had trouble with.

Neither Bird Gets the Fish

Seagull Chases Eagle

 The seagull-eagle chase was a first for me. The eagle snatched the fish moments before this shot and as the eagle climbed to go find a place to eat, this gull chased it around in a few circles.

Fish Fight

Fish Fight

There were frequent eagle frenzies on the opposite shore. I think most of them happened when an eagle dropped a fish on the rocks, resulting in dozens of other eagles converging.

And this one wins the prize for the biggest fish that I saw all day.

Quite a Big Fish

This Year's Crowd Shot

In summary, I clearly need to work on my technique. I came away with way too many out-of-focus and over-exposed shots. I've been shooting in manual exposure mode since I got the new lens over the summer. I'm convinced it's the right way to go and I'm committed to sticking with it, but I get a little forgetful about checking exposure frequently as the light changes. The lens has trouble tracking focus with a busy background; I have to get better at recognizing when I can get away with acquiring focus and then LET GO of the button because the action is far away and the birds aren't necessarily leaving the plane of focus. I'm also still getting used to shooting from a tripod, and that's a challenge when the action is close and moving fast.