At the Lake (Part, the Second)

[WifeKidsandDog]

So, I'm sitting at the lake drinking my Starbucks, minding my own business but waiting for something exciting to come along, and I noticed the geese with their head on the side, casting one eye upwards.

So I naturally cast mine upwards, and see this:

He was slowly circling but WAY up high and I watched for a while and it seemed to disappear. So I sat for a while longer, hoping it'd come back, but nothing, so I decided to go home. On the way I stopped for another Starbucks, and the sky was clearing and it was beautiful, so I decided to go back to the lake for another hour.

And I sat for a while, thinking how pretty everything looks when the sun is out -- all sparkly and white. Then out of NOWHERE ....

The eagle roared in from my left and right in front of me, no more than 50 meters away, swooped and tried to grab a duck. I'm shrieking, "HOLY ... " Well, holy something, I think I said a bad word! Ooh, it was scary but mesmerizing. The geese and ducks were flapping and the noise was deafening.

I ran down to the edge with my camera, but I was shaking too much. I watched the brief flurry but the eagle wasn't successful -- I managed to control my shaking enough to get one shot of him as he took off:

Oof, WHAT a moment!

[Steve Foss]

Oh, Cheryl! I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing WITH you. Been there, shaken that.

You had the photographer's equivalent of buck fever.

Seriously, your instincts were dead on. A musher watches his team to see what's going on around him. A horseman watches his horse's ears. Why? Because animals and birds have senses more finely honed than most humans, and they can always tell us things if we pay attention. You paid attention.

As for the shooting, when in doubt, when your heart is thumping and your limbs are shaking and you don't know what to do, leave the camera on "P," point the lens at the action, and just keep shooting as long as the darn thing keeps recording images. Worst that can happen is you get garbage, but almost always you'll get something usable, and sometimes you'll get something phenomenal.

Another hint. Set the focus mode on "Al focus." It will let you autofocus on a stationary subject, but once that subject starts to move, it'll track the subject as in "Al servo" mode, calculating its rate of movement toward or away from the lens and keeping the subject in focus.

I shot a lot of state Nordic skiing competition last winter at Giants Ridge (skiers coming straight toward the camera at a good clip) using this feature on the 20D, which was brand new for me at the time, and everything was sharp as a tack.

Below is an example. One of the top skiers in the state (from Ely), came gliding and stroking around the corner toward the finish, and skiers from another team that didn't make the final cut watched (some in obvious envy, some in congratulatory good fellowship) as she pushed toward a top 10 finish. The camera was set as I mentioned, and knew EXACTLY who to focus on.

[WifeKidsandDog]

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Oh, Cheryl! I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing WITH you. Been there, shaken that.

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LOL, that's funny. I don't think the adrenalin/Starbucks/400mm combo was ever going to be a good one for me, lol.

I do use AI Servo, but I didn't have the camera in continuous drive, SILLY ME! I never even thought of using Program mode, I'll do that next time and just keep my finger on the shutter. But I think I got as much as a fright as those poor birds, it was so sudden! I am a bit pleased with myself re: noticing the geese, however, I felt like one who knows how to commune with nature. LOL!

This is a great photo, exposure is spot on and the faces say it all.

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[Steve Foss]

Thanks. Got a lot more like it from that meet. Ahhhhh, a 20D — heaven!

When I'm simply out in the vehicle or tooling around with no particular goal in mind, the camera is set on iso 400, Al focus, P mode, continuous shooting with the 100-400 IS. I'm on RAW+small jpeg mode, and I get six shots in a row at 5 fps before it has to write to the card (23 shots at a time when shooting large jpeg). It's the best combination of settings I know for off-the-cuff shooting. If a wolf jumps out from the woods, I want to GET THE SHOT, and there's no time to fiddle with any manual dump. If the situation settles down, I'll go manual for complete control.

[WifeKidsandDog]

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Thanks. Got a lot more like it from that meet. Ahhhhh, a 20D — heaven!

When I'm simply out in the vehicle or tooling around with no particular goal in mind, the camera is set on iso 400, Al focus, P mode, continuous shooting with the 100-400 IS.

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This is a great tip and I'll remember it -- next time the geese look up, I'll just set the camera and start taking deeeeeeeeep breaths.

[Steve Foss]

Camera shooting without a tripod/monopod is like shooting a gun with a scope. Put the crosshairs on the target, breathe deeply, take in a deep breath, let it half way out and hold — then start squeezing the trigger! No matter how many thousands of triggers/shutters pulled, a shooter can always become that little bit more steady.

[buzzsaw]

Happy B'day Steve!

[Tom Wilson]

Cheryl,

I too had a situation almost identical to this last spring. I tried in vain tonight to find the post, but the story is the same, I'm clicking away at a line of geese all looking up in unison, and then (and I believe I used the exact same explative--holy......) There he was big as life right above me and I couldn't get the camera off of the tripod in time to get him. I'll look for that photo tomorrow. Congrats on what you did get though!

Tom W

OH YEAH!!! Happy Birthday Steve.

[WifeKidsandDog]

I'd love to see the photo (and read the thread if you find it).

I'm still laughing about it this morning. Me running around with me wee legs all wobbly, shrieking "Oh my God, Oh my God." LOL

I'd do great as a war photographer. NOT!

Cheryl

[Tom Wilson]

Cheryl,

You don't even want to know what I went through to find this. I looked for the thread, but it was posted I believe last Feb or Mar--my post history only goes back till may. Anyways, here's my photo of the exact same thing (I have no idea which eagle picture went with it...) I just thought it was cool, because when this happened it was the first time I had seen it as well.

[WifeKidsandDog]

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Cheryl,

..Anyways, here's my photo of the exact same thing (I have no idea which eagle picture went with it...) I just thought it was cool, because when this happened it was the first time I had seen it as well.

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LOL, that's funny, Tom.

That exact same, "Uh-Oh, better keep an eye on this," pose.

The goose on the right appears to have his other eye closed -- maybe he's squinting so he can see better.

Cheryl

[Dotch]

I tilt my head like that a lot but it's mainly because I can't hear, especially when the Social Director is addressing me... Great photo's!