The picture of the bald eagle and the story of the morning.


Some of you may have seen the image that was printed in the Albuquerque Journal but you may not have seen this one, which was taken during the same shoot. Thanksgiving morning I decided to go birding.  I was excited and looking forward to a great meal that evening.  Our gathering was small, (unfortunately,) without some family and friends due to the coronavirus. 

When going birding, presetting the camera and lens to the desired settings is extremely important; this way I'm prepared for the shot. You never know when you'll see a bird or an animal so you have to be ready. After parking in the Alameda Open Space lot, I started my walk through the woods on this clear, crisp morning. My primary thoughts were mainly for a great friend of ours who had just had a beautiful baby boy and praying that the family was okay, my mind was not on birding. Walking through the woods I turned a corner and bam, there was a bald eagle right in front of me in the tree! Adrenaline immediately raced through me, I'd have to raise the camera and have to hope the camera/lens settings were close enough to require minimal adjustments. Would the eagle sit there patiently while I tried to figure all of this out? Luckily, I was partially obscured from him by bushes and I was wearing a camo jacket. Raising the camera slowly I just started shooting, not worrying about the initial settings. Getting pictures was my first thought. The eagle sat on the branch for what seemed like 5 minutes before flying away, during which time my heart and mind were still racing. The experience cannot be adequately captured on paper. After the eagle flew away, calling friends and family was the first thing on my mind. Needless to say I was extremely excited. The day after Thanksgiving I was trying to think of away to share the photo with the local newspaper. Cindy happened to be reading the newspaper at the time and looked up the persons name in charge of photos. I called the person and he said to send him the picture and he'd take a look at it. Within a few minutes I got a return email asking for permission to print the photo; no word as to when it might appear or how big the picture might be. Cindy was reading the newspaper the next day (Saturday) and there it was, almost a half page photo! WOW, WOW,WOW.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Capturing birds in flight, a Cooper's hawk, and the process of working to get a 'tack' sharp photo

Image
  Capturing birds in flight like the Cooper's hawk above has been quite an adventure into photography for me. I'm not sure that the average person knows exactly how hard it is to capture a sharp image, but I can tell you it's more difficult than one would think. Initially starting out just shooting birds that were still, I always had the desire to capture birds in flight, the question is: how do you do it? Capturing flying birds has required me to watch quite a few youtube videos and read from a few birding books that I have, hoping that there would be an answer to this question. Having the right camera with the ability to shoot at unbelievably high shutter speeds is a start. My Sony Alpha 6400 seemingly has no end to how fast it can take pictures. However, shutter speed by itself is not the only factor. Something called the 'exposure triangle' is the key. I won't go too much further into this as it can take hours to explain, but these three components involve 1...
Read more

A Northern Goshawk

Image
Goshawks usually reside in the northern United States. When prey is scarce, though, they may be found well to the south of their normal range. A couple of days ago while walking through the open space, I passed by a tree where some birds were making a huge ruckus. I stopped, turned around, and tried to figure out what was causing the birds to be upset. I didn't see the goshawk right away; it was camouflaged almost perfectly against a thick tree branch. The goshawk didn't move, fly away, or alert me in anyway that it was there, but the birds sure knew. Finally I saw it, an eyas (juvenile hawk), which might explain why it didn't fly away, just not experienced yet. The goshawk was not huge by any standard and had beautiful feathers that it was seemingly shedding. Goshawks hunt their prey by putting on short bursts of amazingly fast flight, twisting among branches and crashing through thickets in the intensity of pursuit. They generally mate for life with females laying 2-4 egg...
Read more

A blue Grosbeak

Image
 I rarely see one of these beautiful birds. They are usually found in fields as was the case with this one. Males are blue with two brown wing bars. A mated pair of Grosbeaks usually raise two broods of nestings per year.They build their nests low in small trees, shrubs and tangles in vines. The oldest grosbeak on record was a male who was at least 7 years and two months old when he was captured and re released during banding operation in Virginia.  
Read more