Bald Eagles Close to Home

I always tell new photographers to make their craft an everyday activity. You won't improve if you reserve photography for vacations and holidays. Gaining proficiency with your equipment and talent for composition with the available light and limits of the landscape requires practice. So it is important to find photographic inspiration on your home turf.

Following my own advice, after six weeks of exploration and observation, I captured a handful of worthwhile Bald Eagle pictures. After our "epic" six-inch snowstorm this week, it dawned on me that afternoon light reflecting off fresh snow would provide some great conditions. I bailed on work thirty-minutes early and arrived at the nest as the magic hour was beginning. My snow-reflector idea worked. These photos captured feather detail unlike any other that I have taken.

The first photo shows an archetypal Bald Eagle pose. I successfully imitated a thousand other photographers who came before me. This second photo is more rewarding for me, even if it is less technically perfect. The Eagle is spied between branches, framed by complex intersecting lines. The sky is more washed-out. The image is generally colder and yet, more real and, inexplicably, more artistic.