In the Field

Evening Eagle. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. August 19, 2024.

I post a lot of images to this website that were shot in the rain (or under heavy overcast and/or foggy conditions) in the Great Bear Rainforest. That may have lead some to believe that the sun never comes out there. No so! There are definitely times when we see spectacular sunsets and sunrises, and there are times when we have to fight the harsh sun that so many wildlife photographers hate! I captured this evening eaglescape (yes, there IS an eagle in this shot) during my Summer in the Great Bear photo tour in August of 2024. That bright round thing near the upper right corner of the image IS the sun! 😉

I'm a huge fan of animalscape shots, which are basically landscape photos with an animal anchoring the image and giving the viewer's eye a place to go. I've been shooting animalscapes for decades now, and during that time I've pondered the question "Just how small can the animal in an animalscape be and still be considered the subject?" I doubt there is a singular answer to this question (yep, "it depends"...on a LOT of things!), but based on my own experience I can say that the animal subject CAN be incredibly small. I haven't counted the pixels the eagle occupies in this image, but I doubt it occupied any more than 1/100th of a percent of the total image area. Oh, and by the way, if you can't find it, the eagle is perched atop the rock near the middle of the frame! It's possible you'll have to view the 4800 pixel version of the image (linked below) to see the eagle (depending on the size and resolution of your display device).

This image was captured with a Nikon Z 9 and a Nikon 120-300mm f2.8E (F-mount) lens. While this lens is quite heavy and - at least for some - difficult to handle, optically it's just excellent, combining biting sharp in-focus regions with dreamy out-of-focus zones in a near perfect balance (ironically this image has almost no out-of-focus zones and thus doesn't really show what the lens can do). Until just days before writing this commentary it was my sole remaining F-mount lens that I regularly use. But then, literally out of the blue, someone approached me and asked if I would consider selling it. Long story short, we came to terms and I no longer own the 120-300mm f2.8E.

Why did I sell it - especially given how much I like the lens? Well...there were a number of factors. First, for me this lens is not a lens I commonly walk around with much, which means it gets most of its use on expeditions and photo tours that I lead. Now that I have transitioned to mirrorless and have a strong collection of Z-mount long lenses when it comes to choosing lenses to take on those excursions I have more choice than ever, and I am very reluctant to leave either my Z 400mm f2.8S or my Z 800mm f6.3S at home (and there is a limit to how many heavyweight lenses I can take with me). So I was finding the 120-300mm f2.8E losing out more often than not.

Second, most of my expedition and photo tour shooting takes place on BC's central and northern coast which are very moist - and often super wet - environments. While I normally have little reluctance to use adapted F-mount lenses on my Z bodies, the reality is that the FTZ and FTZII adapters aren't well-sealed against moisture, and the external surface of my rear element of my 120-300 mm f2.8E regularly fogged up when using the lens in high humidity environments (even if shooting under a rain cover). Note that this problem isn't unique to the 120-300mm f2.8E - we have seen it happen with virtually all adapted F-mount lenses when used in those same very moist conditions. The problem CAN be solved by wrapping the junction between the lens and the FTZ adapter with electrician's (or "gaffer") tape, but that fix makes adding a 1.4x TC to the mix a real pain!

Will I get the Z-mount version of the lens when it becomes available? Well...at this point there is no indication from Nikon one is coming any time soon (if ever). But if it does I'm still not 100% sure I'd jump at it. If we do see a Z-mount version of the lens and it loses some weight (like 500 grams or more) AND if Nikon offers it with a built-in 1.4x TC I would definitely consider it. Only time will tell...

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this "definitely not a close-up" Bald Eagle shot 😉:

• Evening Eagle: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 2.5 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Summer in the Southern Great Bear Exploratory Photo Adventure in late August of 2024. Each year I offer trips into the Great Bear Rainforest as well as tours into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

Evening Eagle. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. August 19, 2024.

High Efficiency* Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 64.

Nikon Z9 paired with Nikkor 120-300mm f2.8E @ 240mm. Hand-held from a floating Zodiac inflatable boat. VR on in Sport mode. Single-point AF area mode.

1/2000s @ f2.8; -1.0 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Evening Eagle. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. August 19, 2024.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .nef (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD2S algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 8.1 Elite (using the appropriate lens/camera optical module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Phase One's Capture One Pro (build 16.4.6). In the case of this image all adjustments were made globally (non-selectively) and included only tweaks to the highlights, shadows, and blacks.

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Evening Eagle. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. August 19, 2024.

Species Status in Canada*: This species is not designated as at risk. The Bald Eagle was listed as "Endangered" in the contiguous US states from 1967 to 1995. In 1995 it was downlisted to "Threatened". On June 28, 2007 Bald Eagles were removed from the list of endangered and threatened species - a true American conservation success story.

The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a very large bird of prey with broad wings. Adults possess characteristic white ("bald") heads. It takes Bald Eagles a full five years to attain their characteristic adult plumage (including their nearly pure white head and tail). In the years prior to the development of their adult plumage they are easy to confuse with Golden Eagles. Being very broad-winged Bald Eagles are able to use an energy-efficient flapping-soaring style of flight. While many people like to think of the Bald Eagle as a fierce hunter, in reality they hunt only as a last resort. More commonly they scavenge for their prey. Additionally, they often klepto-parasitize other weaker species such as Osprey, commonly stealing the other species hard-earned prey items. The Bald Eagle is, of course, the national emblem of the United States (Benjamin Franklin argued against this - his preference was for the Wild Turkey).

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada