ENTRY DESCRIPTION
By most measures, five hours is hardly a significant amount of time. Five hours in a new location to get an image of a subject flying at speeds up to 100 miles per hour seemed like pure fantasy.
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After a four-hour drive from Anchorage, I arrived in the small city of Homer just before midnight. I set off early the next morning, as I had to start my drive back to the airport by noon. I spent a good part of my first hour walking back and forth along the shoreline after spotting the birds briefly from a distance. I knew I had to get close enough and low enough to be able to showcase the animals in their environment. An image looking up at an eagle into the sky would lack context, and as with any bird, it is all about the wing position. On a cloudy morning, lighting is scarce, and when you need a shutter speed around a thousandth of a second to freeze the motion, you really push the camera to its limits.

Selection matters. Selection matters more when you’re making a choice for life. Bald eagle mates are bound by their nest making, a chore that can span years through gradual additions to their projects. Following an acrobatic courtship display involving some joint cartwheels towards the earth, the eagles may mate and will eventually share responsibility of incubating the eggs. While many of the birds live independently throughout the year, breeding season will bring the two together again. Despite the short window in Alaska and less than pleasant weather, a pair provided me with the perfect story. Only one title seemed fitting.

AUTHOR
Eric's interest in photography began when his parents gave him an old film camera to use for his course in high school. While the class initially served as an escape from his rigorous biology and chemistry courses, it would eventually become the catalyst for each of his interests and passions melding into one. The film process revealed the "magic" of how science and technology could immortalize a scene in front of him. With this, his creative side would soon be unlocked.

Eric earned a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from Wake Forest University. He enjoyed his courses in physiology, molecular biology, and genetics, but it was ecology that grabbed his attention. The idea that life, across species and geographies, is intertwined resonated with him long after his classes concluded.

This concept has driven much of Eric's travel and work to date. He seeks to explore new cultures, new areas of the world, and unique wildlife with the hope that his images can deliver that same empowering idea to others that he felt in his studies — that we can all share some connection and hold interest in other people and living things, even when the link might not be apparent.

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