Himba village, Nambia, October 2021
I ski past this pair of nesting bald eagles frequently but getting a good perspective & lighting without a distracting background has been challenging. Yesterday, those components came together when one of the eagles was perched in the dead branches of a cottonwood tree. When I saw the symmetry of the stark branches coupled with the direction of the eagle's gaze against an open sky, I knew this would end up being a monochrome image.
Hope you enjoy,
Colin
Wildlife closeups are great when the situation allows but I often find it more artful to include a dramatic backdrop to show the environment in which the subject lives. I captured this bald eagle in flight a couple nights ago after it flew from the top of a spruce tree. Shooting at the treetop from a low angle didn't produce any interesting images but it quickly took flight into a beam of golden light against the muted mountainside in the background and this is what I ended up with.
As always, thank you for following along and feel free to share my site with your friends.
Colin
Image taken with Nikon D850 and Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II Lens, hand-held. ISO 400, 1/800" @ f/6.3
I had a visitor on my snowy walk yesterday - I observed this bald eagle for more than an hour in our freshly winterized wonderland, snapping frames when I could and waiting for the right moment. Focusing can be difficult in heavy snow as the lens will often pick up on the large flakes rather than your subject but thankfully I caught this takeoff while maintaining a sharp focus on the eagle.
Have a great day out there and remember to soar!
Colin
Greetings from Ravencroft Lodge in Port Fidalgo, Prince William Sound, Alaska, where I get just enough cell signal in one corner of the building to upload this photo. Our goal this morning was to swim with and photograph salmon sharks. We had one close to the boat but she didn't stick around long, so we came up empty-handed in that regard but on the bright side, there is always room for more bald eagle photos!
Colin
Happy World Photography Day, 2017! I just returned from spending the afternoon shooting wedding portraits on a glacier. On this day, I am reminded of an eagle photo I took in 1997. I was just figuring out the Nikon camera I’d received as a gift the previous Christmas & having some fun on the beach in Homer. After having the film processed and printed, I came to this image and felt a strong sense of satisfaction in what I’d captured. Looking back, I realize it’s not an award-winning photograph by any stretch, but it was enough to sustain my interest in photography, which blossomed into a passion and even more, a way of life. If I hadn’t captured this image, I may have ended up on a different path and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to earn a living creatively, let alone spend the day shooting portraits on a glacier. As always, thank you for following along.
Gratefully yours,
Colin
Happy 4th of July, friends!! Have fun out there, be safe and most of all, be friendly. For the next week, this bald eagle print (going back to the days of film with my first magazine cover shot here) and all gallery wrapped canvas prints are marked down 25% on my store: Enter the following code at checkout: JULY42016
Please share.
Cheers!
Colin
Yesterday was Bob Dylan’s 75th birthday. A friend posted the following line from one of his songs: “The only thing I knew how to do, was to keep on keeping on, like a bird that flew.” (Tangled up in Blue)
Bob Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, was raised in a small, desolate mining town not far from where I grew up in Minnesota. Despite his gruff singing voice and being ridiculed by peers, Bob had a vision. An avid poet, he put his lines to music and followed that vision, eventually becoming one of the most consequential songwriters of our time.
Since first picking up a camera nearly twenty years ago, I have followed a vision of creating and sharing the wonder of the natural world through photographs. In recent years, I have learned to put ego aside, express gratitude for beautiful opportunities and celebrate every successful endeavor, no matter how big or small it may seem. Eking out a living as an artist, adventurer, or any other non-traditional pursuit, requires more than talent, it takes passion and persistence in the face of overwhelming doubt. Often times, there is no clear path going forward or guide as to how to earn a living as a professional photographer. I will always have vocational skills and a college degree to fall back on, and there have been periods when I was resigned to the notion that I should put all this aside and get a “real job" for lack of a better term, knowing that it would be easier to make ends meet but simultaneously drain my soul, which brings me to this bald eagle image. I took this seventeen years ago, around the same time that I declined a very secure career offer with the federal government, to pursue a dream. Two years later it became my first magazine cover. The issue also included a feature story about me (An eye for Nature). A month or so after being published, I learned that it quickly became their best-selling issue to date. The news came on a day that I was feeling despondent and unsure about my future. It was the catalyst I needed that day, to “keep on keeping on” and remain open to opportunities that present themselves, lining the pathway to fulfilling not just a dream, but also a vision and a purpose.
Happy birthday, Bob. Thank you for keeping on and not losing sight of your vision.
Colin
