This shot of an eagle bathing is from Sasse Photos.
Image Credit: Sasse photos
August 01, 2019 - 6:30 PM
It took photographer and videographer Christian Sasse years of “crazy dedication and lots of patience" to get to know B.C.’s eagles well enough to catch them in their natural habitat.
It took just a day for the short video he posted of this labour of love to go viral and win the attention of thousands of viewers.
“I thought, I have so much on eagles bathing, you know what this could be a nice story. It took two to three hours to compose it,” Sasse said. “I thought I’d have 100 shares one Facebook and if it’s good maybe 1,000 by the end of the week. But it went viral and people are watching it from everywhere — I really didn’t expect it.”
So far, the video shared on Facebook has been shared more than 117,000 times.
The videos were filmed between 2015 and 2019 across several Lower Mainland locations and the footage was typically shot during January and February when there are enormous migrations of eagles to Harrison Mills. That is where Sasse, now based in Vancouver but formerly from Penticton, got some of the most intimate shots of the beautiful birds.
That said, there’s something about eagles bathing that continually catches his attention, so it only makes sense that others would enjoy it as well.
“People don’t expect to see eagles bathing. They’re very social and they always do that in groups,” he said.
He’s also learned that they differ in character as much as people do.
“Some are skittish, others are curious and will come close,” he said.
“In Alaska, they will sit right next to you while at Harrison Mills during the salmon run — where they come from Alaska after not seeing people — they’re very skittish at the beginning.”
He’s photographed the majestic birds in the Okanagan, Alaska, throughout the Vancouver area and he’d like to follow them further afield, to places like South Africa and Japan.
“They are incredible,” he said. “Sometimes when I look at my footage, I think, I can’t believe I took this … this is really, beautiful.”
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News from © iNFOnews, 2019