Last month I wrote about some very bad photos I took because I didn’t have the presence of mind to adjust the length of my 100x400mm lens. I nearly ended up with a second post that would lament the same mistake. Nearly.
Above is not a photo of a hazy blue evening sky, but a picture of a Bald Eagle. I had parked myself in a cattail marsh on the edge of a lake. The Eagle’s nest is behind me on my left, and the sun is setting over to my right. If the Eagle flies off its nest, I should have good light and be able to get a decent shot.
I sat there for over an hour and waited. And waited. And then began taking pictures of some dragonflies that seemed to be everywhere. That meant setting my camera up a little differently to take photos close in. Less than five feet. While I played with the dragonflies the above Bald Eagle flew out from the trees. Cursing my stupidity the best shot I got wasn’t until the bird had flown half way across the lake.
I reset the camera, adjusted the f-stop, reset the way it focuses and then I remembered the post I wrote last month. I took hold of the lens and pulled it back to 300mm and waited. The mistake I had made last month involved taking shots of large birds who were very close with the lens set at 400mm. I ended up chopping off their wings, tails and heads. In the pictures that is.
With my camera reset I waited, silently hoping the Eagle would return and I would get another chance.
About fifteen minutes later it flew out from the tree-line again.
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