My Moment with a Western Meadowlark
Speaking of following the birds, desperation to get out of town and find some feathery creatures overwhelmed me during another of those tumultuous weather days and I drove to Sprague, WA.
While there were more birds than back at home in Coeur d'Alene, the light was awful and the wind nearly blew me over. Determination to capture something! A Northern Harrier did an air dance in front of me for nearly 30 seconds but I was so startled that he was long gone when I was still fumbling with the ISO settings. One thing about the wind, the birds take advantage of of their ability to be carried without much effort and so the Harriers and the Gulls were putting on quite a show.
I sat in my Nitro, near the water's edge and followed the graceful movement of the Ring-billed Gulls as they dove in for squiggly little fish. I was mesmerized by their movements and could have followed them around for much longer. Here is my favorite shot from that series:
As luck would have it, I happened upon a male Great Horned Owl that sat on his branch above me and alternately stared down or pretended not to notice. Unfortunately, the light and angle were difficult and I didn't get a sharp focus on him. But it was fun - and he was my first in the wild:
I did not get a decent shot of the Harriers, which was a shame because there were so many. But it was my moment with the Western Meadowlark that made the day. I kept hearing these birds all about me and would spot them just in time for them to fly off out of the reach of my lens. I was frustrated with photography and was thinking that I should just give it up and go back to writing. I was sharing my frustration with a friend, via bluetooth, while driving around and looking for a bird to shoot. The sun peeked out and I drove by a Western Meadowlark sitting on a fence post. I kept going because you know how those things go, stop and the bird flies. I kept thinking about his bright yellow breast against the late afternoon sun and couldn't get it out of my mind and so turned around. As luck sometimes has it, the bird was still on the post and didn't fly when I pulled up and stopped.
"Ooh, a bird," I exclaimed over the bluetooth.
Sandy and I kept talking as the noise of the shutter rested between us. I concentrated hard to get the focus, and make sure it was in his eye. I adjusted my f stop, just to make sure, checked my white balance, shook a little. The whole time this was going on, I could barely breathe, yet our conversation continued. I changed to manual focus, just to make sure, not trusting my camera's auto focus, or my technical skills, and got set up just as the bird flew off. But, I got him.
It is always a tense moment when I transfer the photos to the Mac and look to see if there is one that is in sharp focus - not just any one, but a photo with an expression, a light in the eye, a bug buzzing by, or anything to make it different than the rest. I've yet to take the perfect photo - there is always room to stretch.
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