Conowingo Stoop

We made our fourth and final trip for the season on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012.  It was supposed to be cloudy, but it was a sunny, great day.  I finally managed to get a flight shot with my old 600mm and 1.4 teleconverter.  The birds were right in front of me as usual.  Some people want to know what equipment and settings are used to photograph the eagles.  I have two cameras, a Nikon D3003 and an old Nikon D50.  I put the D50 on the 600mm and use the D300s with 300mm, f/4, set to the fastest continuous mode for flight shots.  I often just use auto because the birds are flying in and out of the shade, up, down and across the river.  The sun can disappear at a moments notice.  When in shutter mode, I set to 1600 or 2000.  And ISO is set to no higher than 400.  Sometimes it is set at 200.  My cards are 90s and 95s SD and CF.  I keep a 32 mb SD and 16 mb CF card in the D300s.  The D50 only uses an SD without the HD and usually only 2 mb.  I have to change that card once.  I take between 1200 and 2200 shots during a full day.  I delete most and end up with about 100 or so that are worth looking at again.  Out of those 100 I am lucky to get 10 or so fairly decent pictures.

And a flight, fight, fish closeup…