One day after Winters First Kiss the temps were back over 40 and the sun was re-asserting its control over the Maryland Suburbs. I took the long way home through Columbia town center from my workout and decided to swing by Wilde Lake Park. Maybe a little mid-afternoon landscape or some ducks would be revealed. There were ducks-a-plenty,
Was that a bald eagle? I’m pretty sure it was. So, I switched from my 12-40mm that usually sits on my Olympus E-M1 to the 40-150mm. This isn’t exactly a birders dream, but you shoot with what you have and it did give me an effective reach of 300mm. The beauty of the expensive lenses is that they can be shot at full aperture at full zoom. So, at f2.8 ISO200 I was still able to get an action-freezing shutter speed of over 1/2500s.
The real difficulty was shooting against the light. However, I didn’t know if the eagle (I found out later it was a bunch of eagles) was going to hang around the lake long enough for me to get to the other side. So, I tried to keep the sun off my left shoulder and did the best I could.
The eagle(s!) seemed to be in an accommodating mood and stayed around. I learned from some passing bird fanciers (whatever they call themselves) that there had been up to 12 bald eagles seen around the lake in recent days. I could see at least two more hanging in the back part of the lake. I also found out that the eagle without the traditional aspect of white head and tail is a juvenile.
It might have been younger, but it is the one that scored while I was there.
I’m not primarily a bird or even a nature and wildlife photographer, but I couldn’t help getting excited about photographing these amazing animals. Once again, I was struck by how much better my day goes when I step out of my routine, camera in hand, and look around.
These shots and more available for purchase:
http://www.brucefpressphotography.com/Nature/Birds/Eagles-Over-Wilde-Lake/
Images shot with Olympus OM-D E-M1, Olympus M. Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO. Processing in Adobe Lightroom, ON1 Effects 10