The Eagles of Haines or Chilkat River are legendary! I’ve known about them long before I was even a photographer. It was once the place only the brave traveled, it remoteness and severity in weather made it a locale few ventured to. That changed and now it is a destination for many wildlife photographers from around the world. A loyal group of K&M folk asked Kevin & I 18 months ago to bring them up here. We’d never been here but were more than up for the adventure, so here we are! But the eagles, well …
You need two important elements to get the legendary show the area is known for, ice and salmon. We have neither right now and that makes the photography a challenge. Furthering the challenge for me personally is, I have photographed Bald Eagles, a lot, and have my own favorites that will be hard to improve on. With the challenges of getting here, we got a late start today, what good light had slipped by before we were in the field. None the less we found eagles. Now, these photos to me are really, well, barely keepers. One thing I mentioned to the group is the Bald Eagle is a commonly photographed bird. Hard to understand when they are a challenge for most but so many venture to locations like Chilkoot that there are lots of great images out there. So getting the uncommon shots of the common will be the goal. These photos though shot with the D4s / 800mm are common shots at the very best. We will do better but I won’t be satisfied with these kinds of images. Only time will tell how well we’ll do as I’m back with the eagles.