It was dinner time Sunday afternoon and I was not prepared. So first let me post this as a disclaimer, I know the photos quality is not the best, they are not what I would like to put on here and not something I would ever print and sell. With that said what I have come to realize lately is that when people look they are not necessarily looking for great photographs but for their appreciation for wildlife. On Sunday I needed to make an unexpected trip to my home town of Shippensburg for the day to help someone out. I never go anyplace without my camera, I just don't carry everything most of the time and this time was no different. I had the D300 with the 18-55 VR attached.On the way home my family heard the usual "all crap" followed quickly by a heavy brake pedal, a look in the rear view mirror to see if we are about to get hit and then either into reverse or a quick U turn. That is normally followed by them asking 10,000 questions and me just saying get the windows down and keep quiet. Well that is the way it went down Sunday afternoon and once I aimed the camera skywards they knew what all the commotion was about.
This hawk was sitting on top of these phones lines watching something in the grass below. I have been trying to photograph hawks for sometime and we have plenty around our house but I am never able to get close enough, now I finally get close enough but I have a lens on that I can't see the hawk on the LCD without zooming in the playback on the camera. What the heck it is digital, already paid for, the worst that can happen is I will need to delete everything. So I start firing away as this hawk just keeps looking down as if his head is on a swivel only occasionally looking up. Finally he decides to dive like a bomber almost straight down. Once on the ground all we can see are wings flapping until he seems to settle down and look around, that is when I spotted the rodent in his mouth. A few moments later he flies away to a distant tree with the rodent in his talons.
It was a great site to witness and the rest of my family enjoyed it as much as me. If I had only had the big lens I could of had amazing photos, but then that is the story of my life.
9 comments:
Gosh, I think these are still remarkable photos despite your "disclaimer". I would never been able to do as well. You got some great action shots of him going down into his hunt and I think this is fantastic!
Great series and congrats!
Mountain Retreat
Wow, I too think the photos are amazing even though you didnt have your big lens. :)
WOW. Great catch. You made me laugh when I was readying the part about you and the family in the car. I can just see it now.
Great shot. See you when you get back to work.
Doug
Well they aren't too bad! And better they than nothing at all - which is what I often end up with! ;)
Cheers, Klaus
Awesome series Bradley! And your stories are always so funny :)
The main thing is they are good photographs under the situation and they along with your words, tell an enjoyable story.
Also thanks for your plug for my blog in Wednesday's post, it is much appreciated. I hope my Yellowstone photos live up to expectations.
The fawn shots were excellent too!
I think the photos are still amazing. How often to do you get to see something like that?
This is a unique series. Just seeing a hawk capture its prey is quite rare, to photograph it at all is wonderful. I'm impressed with what you were able to capture here with such a short lens, but then again a longer lens would have been much more difficult to keep the action in the viewfinder.
These are definitly shots worth posting.
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