Eagles over the Chilkat

Haines Highway between 18 and 24 mile

F 8, 1/320 sec, ISO 250

I traveled to Haines, AK specifically to photograph the bald eagle congregation. The eagles congregate to eat the dead and dying salmon after the late spawning run up the Chilkat river. After a few days of photographing eagle interactions and conflict, I wanted images of eagles flying toward me. The best place to set up was looking across the river at this stand of trees in front of the mountain range in the background. The trees were the main roosting area for the eagles so there was a steady stream of eagles flying across the sky. I just waited until an eagle made the correct flight path across the scene. Occasionally, the eagles flew from the rookery in pairs, which became my new photographic objective after capturing numerous images of single birds in flight. The only issue was getting the eagles in the same frame without cutting off wingtips or having to zoom out too far. After countless failures, I knew I needed a new strategy. I decided to try a short panoramic shot. I knew this would only work if the birds were gliding or in between slow wing beats. This strategy actually worked a few times, and this was my favorite image.