QUESTION AND ANSWER
This Q-and-A forum is open to any and all. You do not have to be a member of the Urban Wildlife Photo Club to ask a photo related question. Your question can run the gamut of technical, location or anything dealing with photography. Questions will be answered and posted on this page as soon as possible. If you have a comment regarding a question or answer, please submit that and it will be added. Questions can be sent to either Andy Long or Bob Dean. Please put UWPC Q-and-A in the subject line.
Question - I am a wildlife and landscape photographer looking for a photo opportunity of eagles catching fish. I saw your article on www.apogeephoto.com, and I was hoping that you would be able to suggest where one may go for such an opportunity. I live in Silverthorne, CO. Last summer while shooting eagles in Lake Umbagog, NH, I photographed a truly incredible eagle sequence. It is a sequence of images of an adult eagle forcing its juvenile to fly. I am interested in finding a way to market this sequence. If you can offer advise and are interested in seeing this sequence please let me know.
Answer - To guarantee getting shots of eagles catching fish, you have to go somewhere where there are lots of eagles with lots of activity. While you might find an eagle hitting the water somewhere in Colorado, you'll probably have to be very lucky to get one of these shots. There's an area in northern California and southern Oregon that sees many eagles. The Lower Klamath Refuge in northern California, near the town of Tulelake, has excellent eagle and other raptor photo ops. You can rent blinds by making a reservation and paying a small fee. Across the border in the upper Klamath Refuge there are also good opportunities. Cache Creek Wildlife area east of Clearlake is reported to be very good during the winter months. Apparently they feed on the carp in the creek. I have heard the walk in to the eagle viewing area is about 1 1/2 miles or so from the trailhead off of Highway 20.
Vancouver Island in Canada can also be good for eagles at different times of the year, but your best bet would be in Alaska. Haines is a good place to go. The eagles often gather when there is a salmon spawn going on, but often they just walk to the edge of the water and pull a dead one out. The other two spots are in Homer and where I lead a workshop in Dutch Harbor. I can come close to guaranteeing you getting a shot of an eagle hitting the water to snag something.
As with all wildlife photography, nothing is 100% but the chances are pretty good. Getting the sequence marketed that you mentioned might be tough. If you can find a publication that might want an article about either the experience or on fledging, that might be the best way to go. Start small if you don't have many publication credits as the larger magazines want people who have been published before. Too often photographers trying to start out with getting published set their sights too high and get disappointed when they can't get anything published. Start with a small, regional publication or small local paper to get a foot in the door.
What camera to get
Question - I currently have a Nikon film camera but I want to upgrade to a digital, although I'm not married to this particular brand. I thought since I'm interested in taking pics of the same things you have on your own site I thought you could help me? What of the dizzying number of choices of cameras and lens would you recommend to take pics of deers, birds and whales? Plus the occasional beetle. I know you have a partial general list but based on your personal experience and that of your students what has stood the test? I mean who makes the cameras and lens that in your opinion function well in the field? I am an artist who uses pics mainly for references but who knows in the future.
Answer - Since you have a Nikon and some lenses you might want to stay with that so you won't have to get all new lenses. I myself shoot Canon and from what I know they are a little further along with advances than the Nikon in some areas but Nikon has some advantages as well.
If you like doing birds, and especially birds in flight, you should look for a body that can give you numerous frames per second and a large buffer. Both brands now have cameras that do 8.5 frames per second and a 40 shot buffer. What you get for a body depends on how much you want to spend. You can get something really great in the $3,000 range with which has some great capabilities. There are also less expensive models that have high frames per second as well.
As for lenses, the beetle shots can best be made with a good macro lens, something around a 50mm or 100mm macro. With the 50mm you have to get closer to the subject to get a good shot but the cost is a bit less than the 100mm. I have a 100mm and then use other attachments such as extension tubes and teleconverters to increase the magnification by as much to 4:1 life size.
Again, for the wildlife lenses it depends on how much you're able to spend. Some decent adequate lenses for wildlife on the less expensive end are a 100-400mm, a 400 f/5.6 and possibly a 300 f/2.8. If you have extra money to spend you can start looking at the 400 f/2.8, 500 f/4 and 600 f/4. These last three start at over $5000 but you can find decent used ones at several locations. For used equipment I check with Hunt's Photo as well as Roberts Imaging (very good for the larger used big lenses).