"The Bald Eagle is for me one of the most magnificent and noble of the Birds and one of the largest birds of prey in North America with a wing spam of approx 7ft. They have now gone from Endangered to Threatened and hopefully will continue to breed in relative safety. Its believed they mate for life. This chap called Cheyenne was taken at the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Andover in the UK where they do sterling work to help endangered Birds of Prey around the world.
The Hawk Trust is an important centre for receiving injured birds of prey and has one of the only specialist bird of prey hospitals in the UK where they can gain fitness prior to release. Set in 22 acres of woodland and wildflower meadow, there are over 150 birds of prey, from the tiny Pygmy Owl to the Steller's Sea Eagles! Many of these birds are involved in spectacular daily flying demonstrations where they fly to the music from Dances with Wolves and I defy anyone not to cry like a baby when they witness this for the first time - I did and fogged up the view finder. There are usually about 60 birds flying at the same time in one of the displays. Black Kites, Vultures and Eagles and they fly really close - so close that on one occasion the wing of a Vulture brushed my head - boy what a wonderful feeling of awe.
I used a Canon EOS 7D and my lens is a Canon EF 100-400 Telephoto Zoom lens, F4.5/5.6 L with image stabilizer. No tripod was used because I like the freedom to move quickly and keep up with the birds movements. Camera settings are F/stop F/5.6 with Exposure at 1/1250sec and ISO 1000, Exposure bias at 0 and Focal Length 260mm and with no flash." - Pat
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Born in the UK , Dan took a gap year in Whistler, British Columbia after high-school which planted the seed for a mountain obsession. While his passion for mountain life took a backseat as he finished a degree in Aerospace Engineering in England, it wasn't long before he returned to the mountains to start his photography business. Dan is a senior photographer for the Canadian ski magazine Skier and his work has also been featured in ski and snowboard magazines from Japan to Canada and everywhere in between as well as innumerable commercial campaigns for an ever widening list of clients which includes top ski resorts such as Whistler Blackcomb, and outdoor sports companies such as Salomon and Oakley.
"I started to take my photography seriously about 12 years ago when I first visited Canada from the UK. I was take aback by the beauty of British Columbia and ended up moving here permanently a few years laters. Initially I worked for the ski resort of Whistler Blackcomb while I settled down but after a couple of years I took my photography full time and I still live in Whistler today.
My inspiration really comes from the mountains and nature that surrounds me here. Even from my office window the view is a wonderful vista of snow capped mountains year round. It makes it easy for me to get out and shoot something whenever I feel like it, even if it isn't for a particular client or assignment. Having moved from the UK, which is decidedly flat and un-snowy, I think it really gives me a heightened appreciation of the place that I now live and I love to share images of this landscape to people who haven't been here, in the hope that one day maybe they will come and see why I think it is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
My current favourite has to be the Canon 5D Mark 3. I've been shooting with it for about 6 months now and every time I take it out I'm astounded by the power they have packed into this small body. I say small because it is smaller that my Canon 1D Mark 4, though it is not small compared to many other cameras these days. I used to love the detailed files produced by the 5D Mark 2 and now they have added an incredibly powerful and customizable autofocus system and improved the high ISO capabilities. It really is a fantastic camera for a range of uses, landscape, travel, even sports and wildlife now with the vastly improved AF." - Dan
Thank you to all the photographers that shared their amazing photos in the photo contest. We had a tough time selecting the top finalists among 5,000 entries showing doors and windows in a creative way.
A big thank you to guest judge Emma Brabrook, Emma is based in South Wales, UK. She first got interested in photography many, many years ago, but she really got actively stuck into it five years ago. Emma loves teaching others more about photography and retouching and has a soft spot for beautiful landscape photographs. Her favourite photographers are many of the greats – Annie Leibovitz, Paolo Roversi and Gregory Crewdson to name a few.
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