Blog followers know I have a strong aversion for power poles and wires in my images. But thanks to input from readers I’ve had a change of heart when the poles are ancient and the insulators are the old-fashioned kind.
It’s hard enough to get a single sharp shot of a landing raptor but nine days ago I captured an entire series of them near Montana’s Centennial Valley.
Part of the reason I like the photo is because we don’t see many shots of landing raptors.
Sometimes I have to rely on subtle clues to figure out what’s really going on in my own images. And I was there!
I like these images not because they’re flashy but because they’re just a little bit different.
Landing on relatively small elevated perches must be one of the more difficult skills young raptors must learn.
I enjoy seeing the flight adjustments made by a large raptor as it comes in to land.
I’ve been watching a mated pair of Swainson’s Hawks near Monida, Montana all summer and for several reasons I believe their first nesting may have failed and they started over.
This Long-billed Curlew made several transitions as it came in to land – from poor light to good light, from a mostly featureless background to an interesting one and it touched down in a field of flowers. This 7 image sequence was photographed two days ago on Antelope Island.
For the past few days Western Kingbirds have been very active on Antelope Island. Though I’m still trying to interpret some of their behaviors they appear to be in the process of selecting mates and/or nest sites.
Photographing a bird as it lands is much more difficult than when it is taking off.
Yesterday morning I decided to break with one of my long-standing traditions and brave the potential crowds by visiting one of the more popular birding sites in the area on a weekend – Glover Pond near Farmington Bay WMA. One of my goals was to locate and photograph the Little Blue Heron that has been hanging around in the area for the last couple of weeks. That bird is causing a lot of excitement in the birding and photography communities because it’s so far out of its range. I never did find that heron but this one more than made up for it.
This image goes back into my archives about as far back as they go. It was taken on October 1, 2007 – just a few months after I became serious about my photography. I was still shooting with my first digital camera, the Canon Rebel XTi which I still have. It’s an entry-level camera and I still remember what the camera salesman said when I told him that I was planning on mounting that small camera onto a huge Canon 500 mm lens – “well, it will work but don’t you think it’ll look a little silly?”
Photographing birds as they take off is tricky but with a little luck and perseverance it can be done. Landing shots are much more difficult and often require creative innovation.
