These pictures were taken at Colvill Park in Redwing, MN in March 2008 during the Eagles annual Northward migration along the Mississippi River.

On Saturday, it was cold (25 degrees F) and cloudy, not enough light and not much eagle action. I got back there on Sunday morning about 8:00. It was still cold, but there was beautiful golden morning light facing in the right direction.

These were all taken with a Nikon D200, a 400/2.8 lens (non-VR) and a TC17 teleconverter. With the teleconverter and the digital conversion factor, that a 35mm effective focal length of 1020mm/f5.0! It's an amazing lens that I have to grow into. This was my first time shooting this size of glass, it was a great experience and I am excited to learn more.

For those interested, I was using a Bogen 3021 tripod (too light - need a Gitzo!) with a Really Right Stuff BH-40 Ballhead and plates. Most photos were shot with shutter speeds between 1/1250 and 1/2000. Most of the time I shot aperature priority matrix metering at -1/3 stop compensation to protect the white eagle heads from overexposure. Sometimes I would shoot manual using the sunny f16 rule.