Friday Photo #676 – Sea Eagle

Photo: White-Tail Sea Eagle picks up fish from fjord, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 5, 2025. 13:33

In some of my recent photo workshops we are beginning to introduce more activities than just landscape and northern lights photography. The sea eagle safaris out of Svolvær are one of those activities. And as I still consider myself a beginner wildlife photographer, this is probably as much fun for me as for the clients. And much better than standing around on the Hamnøy bridge at sunrise for the XXth time over the previous two months.

And when I say I’m a beginner, look below at my camera info to see that I made some big mistakes with this image. f/18, ouch!!! I could actually see over the sequence of images where my operate got stopped down. The combination of a small rib boat with relatively tight quarters, stormy weather, thick gloves, etc, probably all lead me to accidentally moving the aperture wheel. And in the excitement, it was sometime until I finally noticed and opened the aperature back up to where it should be for a dark winter day on Lofoten. But I used up the best light while still at f/18. Lesson learned for next year.

Luckily though, the denoise option with Adobe camera raw works wonders these days. So even this ISO 12,800 image turned out pretty decent in the end. Leaving me not too depressed with my mistake…

*For transparency, the boat drivers throw fish to the eagles, so this is not a fully wild image.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6
165mm
ISO 12800
f18
1/2000 Second
WB Daylight