Last year, in December, I went to Sweden with the goal of taking some dramatic shots of the majestic Golden Eagle. I had a great experience, even though the bad weather conditions and not that much luck, prevented me from coming back home with the great pictures I was hoping.
In April, I went to visit Conny again, this time to photograph the Black Grouse during the mating season. Since the birds stop fighting around 9:00am, the rest of the day was available to focus on different species, and I asked Conny to stay in the eagle hide to try again and shoot this wonderful bird.
So every day, after a one-hour drive back from the lek to the house, and after having some breakfast, I was going to the eagle hide to spend the afternoon there.
Unfortunately, the first three days passed with no eagle showing up: the following day was going to be my last chance and I was preparing myself "psychologically" to get home once again without the eagle shot.
On the fourth day I arrived to the hide as usual, after passing the first hours in the early morning with Conny at the Black Grouse lek. Some time passed without anything special happening, but then, finally some luck: I saw a shadow passing over the hide, a glimpse of the Golden Eagle, and it landed on the trees nearby. I took some shots with the second camera placed on the side of the hide while the eagle flew, over my head, to land again, but this time just in front of the hide. The dominant male, an old eagle that had been visiting the site for many years.
400mm f/5.6 1/1000sec ISO320 +1
400mm f/5.6 1/1250sec ISO320 +1
400mm f/5.6 1/1250sec ISO320 +1
The majestic bird was very close, just a
few meters from me. I am glad I had placed there the 5D MkIII, set in
silent mode – I do not know what would have been its reaction from
hearing a normal shutter sound. I was moving my lens extremely slowly,
not to scare the eagle and I was able to admire and photograph that bird
for almost 50 minutes: just the eagle and myself.
No
fights between birds, dramatic shots in the snow or contest winning
pictures, I know, but such a close encounter with the Golden Eagle was
really special.
800mm f/8.0 1/320sec ISO1000
800mm f/8.0 1/640sec ISO1000
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