DOWN TO EYE LEVEL

Despite the mild winter so far the squirrels must have used up all their food reserves. At least they started feeding sunflower seeds from our bird feeders with much higher intensity than in December or early January. Who knows? There isn’t much exciting about a photo of an Eastern Gray Squirrel feeding but the snow crystals in its fur triggered my interest. I don’t want my photos look like they were shot with a phone camera, from above and as boring as possible… ;-) The option was to lay down and bring the lens to the eye level of the critter. And that’s what I did to get this shot.

 

NATURE CLICKS #253 - DOWNY WOODPECKER

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, Nikon SB800 speed ligh

Every bird goes on high alert here in our woods if a bird of prey shows up. They either fly away panicky or they just freeze absolutely motionless, like this Downy Woodpecker just outside our window. A Sharp Shinned Hawk hunts here quite often, and even if we can’t see the predator always, we know it is around by just watching the other birds behavior.

 

A FINE LINE

I stopped briefly at lock & dam #14 today on my way back home from a business trip. Unfortunately it was just about the same time when a big field of clouds moved in from the west that covered the sun. You could tell that the quality of light dropped from one minute to the next or from gorgeous light to stupid gray. I counted six Bald Eagles sitting in the trees and about three times more photographers who waited more or less patiently for the birds to come down and start some fishing action. The eagles didn’t leave the trees at all while I was there and shooting against a gray sky wasn’t really what I had in mind.

Sometimes we have to accept that we come home with nothing on the memory card, but if we don’t try we will miss the opportunities that come at another time. Today’s photo was made almost exactly one year ago and the metadata of the image reveal that it was even almost the same time, between 3 and 4 o’clock. It can be a fine line between success and coming back with nothing in your hands…

 

PRACTICE WITH THE GULLS

Every winter when I go out shooting Bald Eagles for the first time in the season I get reminded how important it is to practice proper shooting techniques. There is no lack of Ring-billed Gulls along the Mississippi and when the eagles decide to sit just quiet in the trees I just aim for the gulls in order to use my time the best. If you have a high keeper rate while shooting gulls, getting a sharp image of a Bald Eagle in flight seems to be a piece of cake in comparison. The flight pattern of the eagles is a lot more predictable.

After arrival at lock & dam #14 in LeClaire, Iowa last Sunday I went straight for the place where the gulls were fishing. My keeper rate was very low in the beginning but improved over time and finally there were a few pictures that I even liked…