I had been contracted to take photographs of Eagle With a Salmon, sculpted in 1986 by Fred Graham of New Zealand. The eagle is down at Harbour Quay on a 35-foot wooden column and was in bad condition—paint peeling, bare spots with green moss, and badly cracked.
My wife Lesley contacted Scott Kenny, the director of Parks and Recreation at the city, and explained the situation as to the condition of the eagle and that the photographs would be in a book about the life and art of Fred Graham. Good free publicity for Port Alberni.
Eagle With a Salmon was taken down, repaired and back on its perch, salmon and all. I went down to the quay armed with my trusty Nikon D300s, my normal shooting Nikon lens (17-70mm), the Nikon 80-200 f2.8, a 2X extender, Manfrotto tripod, Cullman monopod, spare camera battery, Nikon SB-800 “X” flash with extra batteries, table-top tripod, and various other goodies.
It was cold with a strong, freezing wind coming in from the Alberni Inlet so that whenever I faced the sculpture, the wind would be in my face. But one must soldier on.
I started off by shooting from the top floor of the clock tower, 80-200 f2.8 lens with the lens not the camera body screwed onto the tripod, electronic cable release attached.
The details of shot No. 1 are: RAW format, lens set at 200mm, ISO 400, aperture f10 (I stopped down the lens to f10 to preview the depth of field), shutter speed 1/400 of a second.
Then I put the 2X extender on the Nikon between the monster lens and the camera body. Now I have automatically doubled the lens focal length so that the 80-200mm f2.8 lens becomes a 160-400mm f5.6 lens (I lose about two stops because of the extra glass in 2X extender). That would translate to a 240-600mm f5.6 lens on a 35mm film camera.
Crisp, clear images in living colour appeared in the viewfinder; I clicked away. Did I mention that everything worked with the 2X extender except for the auto-focus? I had to focus by hand, not a problem at all; I still had use both of my hands, and I have the diopter on the Nikon viewfinder set to my left eye so that I am able to shoot without my glasses.
The details of the shots taken with the 2X extender in place are: RAW format, lens set at 200mm, ISO 800, aperture f6.3, shutter speed 1/640 of a second.
I knew that because I was using the 2X extender the image would be a lot closer, but the depth of field would be a lot shallower. I previewed the depth of field with my little lens stop-down button so I knew almost exactly what would be sharp in the image and what would be out of focus. I ended up shooting Eagle With a Salmon from the ground, from the pier, from the grass side, and from the rear, some close-ups, and some with tugboats and the Inlet behind.
I sent the people who commissioned the photos six different shots and two extreme close-ups on a DVD along with copy permission.
Any questions? E-mail me at nsilverstone@telus.net or see me online at www.silverstonephotos.com.
Norman Silverstone teaches photography through North Island College and Eldercollege in Port Alberni.
