Photofocus

If you’ve been paying any attention to my feed you’ve probably surmised that I am currently in Alaska. I am up here for the second year in a row to photograph bald eagles.

I’m here this time to accomplish different goals than the last time. On this trip I am helping a friend, reviewing cameras, working on an assignment, planning some new workshops and shooting almost exclusively on still cameras.

The last time I was here I shot more video than stills. It’s MUCH easier to just shoot stills. The experience from the last trip convinced me that the folks who shoot video full time deserve a bunch of respect. It’s hard, hard work.

On this trip I have been able to concentrate on various aspects of eagle photography. In this post I’ll show you some pretty pictures like I always do, but I’ll also show you some of the failures. I learned a bunch from seeing Scott Kelby do this on some of his recent assignments so I thought it might be helpful if I did the same.

I’ll have at least one more post wrapping up the trip but for now, look at what’s gone wrong :)
NOTE: All photos by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons – all photos imported into Aperture, cropped or straightened, edge sharpening added – no other post corrections made.

Eagle too low in frame.

Eagle correct height in frame.

Eagle wing clipped outside frame.

Eagle wing not clipped.

Eagle head turned off camera axis.

Eagle head turned properly in relationship to camera axis.

Shot flawed by nictitating membrane

Better shot minus nictitating membrane.

Eagle's head merges with horizon - not salable.

Eagle's head does not merge with horizon - makes it salable.

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