Episode 21: Photographing Eagles and why Manual Makes Everything Easier
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Photographing birds in flight happens one of two ways: incidentally or purposefully. If you are serious about creating these types of photographs, then you need to set yourself up for success first.
Eagles come together in huge aggregations based around the two primary driving forces on Earth: food and sex.
It’s these aggregations that give us the best opportunity for photographing eagles, especially in flight.
To be successful at photographing birds in flight, we need to simplify everything we are doing.
Using exposure settings like aperture priority or auto-ISO sets us up for failure with birds in flight.
Manual exposure makes everything easier.
In Episode 21, Jared and Annalise discuss photographing one of the most iconic species of birds across North America: the bald eagle. Large, majestic, and one of the most acrobatic species of raptors in the Western Hemisphere, bald eagles spill out of the northern latitudes in the fall and winter as they follow their food sources south across the continent. Come late winter, the whole process happens in reverse. As such, bald eagles often arrive in mass aggregations that can total hundreds, if not thousands of these birds in different places. And one particular area of Alaska plays home to the second largest concentration of eagles in North America.
After spending ten days photographing eagles on the wing, creating nearly 150,000 photographs each, your hosts discuss what it takes to return home with such high success rates with birds in flight. Cutting through all the confusion about best practices, Jared explains a methodology for simplifying the process to set yourself up for success.
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Manual Makes it Easier
Building on this concept of how manual exposure makes everything easier, this article discusses the problems with using auto exposure modes in the field. Far from making things easier for beginning wildlife photographers, auto exposure modes such as aperture priority and auto ISO only create complications that must constantly be worked through in the field resulting in countless missed opportunities in ruined exposures.
The best lenses for birds in flight
Lens selection is important when it comes to photographing birds in flight. Over the years, the equipment wildlife photographers preferred for this job has changed and evolved. However, with modern day mirrorless cameras and associated lenses, there is a clear winner in our book. But this comes with a caveat: gear selection is a personal choice. Just because this is what works for us, doesn’t mean it’s the right decision for you.
Mastering Birds in Flight: Pt 1
In the Spring 2024 issue of PhotoWILD Magazine, you will find the first part in a series of feature articles about mastering birds in flight. This article series will cover everything a wildlife photographer needs to understand (and more) for making birds in flight an easy and simple process.
Subscribers should keep and eye out as this will be released this month.
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Mastering Exposure: Rethinking the fundamentals of wildlife photography
In this book, Jared breaks down a radically different approach to exposure for wildlife photography to simplify the process, allow photographers to shoot with ISO settings as high as 25,600, and focus on the things that actually matter when it comes to creating compelling images of wildlife.
This book has changed the way thousands of wildlife photographers around the world approach the technical side of the craft
This ebooks is free with a subscription to PhotoWILD Magazine.
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Want to join us on a workshop?
Epic Eagles of Alaska
Home to the second largest aggregation of bald eagles in the world, this workshop is guaranteed to fill memory cards every single outing.
Each year, several hundred bald eagles congregate along the banks of Kachemak Bay to reunite with their lifelong mates and await “break up” further north. This unique combination of biology and geography gives us unparalleled opportunities for mastering eagles in flight. Don’t be surprised if you come back with over a hundred thousand photos of these birds.
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