Along the Sea to Sky highway there is so much wildlife from Bears to Bald Eagles and everything in between.
My Sigma 150-600mm lens was mainly for taking images of the moon but works well with Wildlife too.
In November hundreds of Bald Eagles come to Squamish for the salmon in the rivers.
If you know where to go, you’ll be walking under the Bald Eagles which are sat in the trees and only tens of meters away.
Here is my first ever photo of a Bald Eagle
Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm @400mm f6 1/80 ISO:1600
My first attempt taking a Bald Eagle photo I walked along a footpath and spotted one sat in a tree. By the time I saw the Bald Eagle it had already spotted me coming. As I was looking up at this big impressive bird it was looking at me and I felt quite intimidated.
I kept walking and saw alone Bald Eagle out on a beach so I stopped to have a look. As I sat there the Bald Eagle started walking towards me, it stopped, looked around and walked some more until I was 10 meters away.
Sat waiting for my chance to get a photo, I looked at the Bald Eagles talons thinking if I scare this bird it could do some real damage to me.
Getting my first Bald Eagle in flight photo I felt accomplished but left me wanting more
Nikon D750 Sigma 150-600mm @ 600mm f7.1 1/1000 ISO:500
Tips
- The biggest tip is patience. Just because you have a camera doesn’t anything will happen as soon as you turn up.
- Read about habits of the Bald Eagles. Find out where and when they feed and find a place to set up.
- Fast shutter speeds. You don’t want blurry wings when the Bald Eagle is in flight.
- Aperture – as wide open as you can if its low light to help with fast shutter speed. If there is good light stop down a little but make sure you can keep a fast shutter speed.
- ISO there is two ways, have auto ISO which will help if the Bald Eagle are in the trees which might be darker but if it takes flight and in an open brighter area your ISO will change. If you are in one spot and not much will change you can manually set your ISO.