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This hawk and I surprised one another Friday evening. After being inside all day, I headed for the front door to take a short walk while the corn bread baked and, on the way, grabbed the camera that had a CF card loaded. It happened to be the 50D with the 70-200mm f4.0. When I stepped off the porch, I turned to the left to check out the sunrise potential and saw out of the corner of my eye one of the hawks perched on our roof. He took off and I scrambled to get a photo.
I wasn’t ready for him and it looks as though he wasn’t prepared for someone to interrupt his hunting. I always walk away from these encounters mentally kicking myself. If, if, if. I only I had had time to choose shutter speed. If only I had had time to adjust exposure. If only I had framed it better. If only I had attached the teleconverter before I walked outside.
Instead of dwelling on the regrets, I decided to celebrate having gotten anything at all. After all, this was strictly a gift. It’s not as it I planned, waited, and watched—investing time in and earning a nice photo. I was fortunate to experience the moment and get anything at all.
All this thinking about how I wish I had done things differently reminded me, of course, of Paul Lester’s post, "Lessons Learned". Each time I download a batch of pictures onto my hard drive, I wonder what new lessons I will learn. Or, what old lessons I might be reminded of yet again.
Instead of dwelling on the regrets, I decided to celebrate having gotten anything at all. After all, this was strictly a gift. It’s not as it I planned, waited, and watched—investing time in and earning a nice photo. I was fortunate to experience the moment and get anything at all.
All this thinking about how I wish I had done things differently reminded me, of course, of Paul Lester’s post, "Lessons Learned". Each time I download a batch of pictures onto my hard drive, I wonder what new lessons I will learn. Or, what old lessons I might be reminded of yet again.
Anita: I've had many such encounters and, most every time, I 'wish' that ... We'll, you know the rest of the story. :-) I remember walking through the woods one day and I nearly walked right into an owl, literally. He was perched on a pretty low branch and, as I turned the corner, we almost came face to face. I think that it scared the crap out of both of us. LOL!
ReplyDeleteHe took off to another branch, much higher up; I was able to squeeze off about 2 shots of him before he took off for more private surroundings. After that I came back day after day to try to find him, or other owls, and never did. Well, it is a fond memory though.
Maybe next time, Anita. Maybe next time!
I think that is a pretty darn good shot for a fading moment. You owe yourself a congrats just for having the camera. As I delete hundreds of images from my recent trip to Alaska, I try to savor the keepers vs. those to missed opportunities. Doesn't always work though! ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnita, perhaps it wasn't the shot you'd have liked to have gotten but hey, it wasn't the hawk that got away...you got him dead-to-rights with his eyes appearing to be in focus. ;-)
ReplyDeletePaul - I love your owl story. It does often feel that it's a toss up as to who is more startled in those chance encounters. And, I know exactly what you mean about returning again and again hoping for repeated sighting. Mostly it doesn't pay off. Oh, well. We have to try, don't we?
ReplyDeleteMark - I ended up feeling pretty much as you advise. Considering the suprise this was, I felt good about getting what I did. I have been seeing more of the hawks and I resolved that day to be better prepared anytime I walk out the door.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is tempting, isn't it, to pine for the "could have been" shots. Especially when it's a very special trip such as yours. From what I have seen, you have so much wonderful work to celebrate it should not leave a great deal of time to linger on missed opportunities.
Earl - I did get the focus on his eyes almost in spite of myself and that certainly made the discards worthwhile. I love that looking over his shoulder glare at me and didn't know I had gotten that until I downloaded the card.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mark, I think it is a great image, and the little bit of blurriness adds to it, I think
ReplyDeleteOne relevant lessons learned is you can't be ready for everything all the time so forget the what ifs. For those surprise encounters I count myself lucky when I haven't left the camera in some weird configuration that totally compromises the whole batch. I like the motion blur in your shot, accidental or not. Getting any kind of framing and focus of a winged bird with a big telephoto is always an achievement.
ReplyDeleteChris - Thanks for the comment. I think the thing I most regretted early on was not having attached the teleconverter. But, that's why I bought the 5D. It helps to have more pixels when you are forced do a fairly severe crop. I do like the blur in the wings.
ReplyDeleteBob - You are so right about being lucky that the camera had not been left in some weird configuration. I am grateful I hadn't left the ISO at 3200. I think I buy too much into the idea that I should get a lot more winners when it comes to these hawks. And, that is likely to happen only if I practiced quite a bit more. Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteThat shot has a lot going for it, even though it's not what you were trying for. Personally, I think you did extremely well to capture it.
ReplyDeleteRakesh - It's great to hear from you. I have missed your comments. And, thank you for your comment on this photo. I actually came to like it more as I reached a healthy distance from the event. I had been stuck on lamenting the need to crop it and a less than ideal exposure. But, after the work in Photoshop, then the comments pushing me to take another look, I feel pretty good about it.
ReplyDelete