{"id":70833,"date":"2019-04-10T06:50:02","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T12:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=70833"},"modified":"2019-04-10T07:00:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T13:00:54","slug":"singing-western-meadowlark-an-accidental-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/10\/singing-western-meadowlark-an-accidental-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Singing Western Meadowlark – An Accidental Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes things go right even when you screw up. I just wish it happened more often.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/250, f\/10, ISO 250, Canon 7D Mark II,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I found this meadowlark singing on sage three days ago on Antelope Island. In my mind it’s hard to go wrong with a singing meadowlark and in this shot I like the early sprig of greenery on the sage, the mix of sand and water on the shore of the Great Salt Lake in the background and of course the singing pose. But man, did I ever screw up my camera settings.<\/p>\n

Just a few minutes before I’d been photographing a pronghorn in much different light so I’d set my ISO at 250 and then forgot to change it back for this meadowlark. That alone would have reduced my shutter speed significantly. But to compound the problem I’d somehow accidentally twirled the wheel controlling my aperture setting to f\/10 and that reduced my shutter speed even more. A shutter speed of 1\/250 for a singing bird is a recipe for disaster, almost guaranteed to produce a soft bird – especially the moving bill and head.<\/p>\n

But somehow this image slipped through unscathed. The entire bird is more than acceptably sharp, including the head and bill. I must have caught the bird during a frozen microsecond when none of the bird was moving and it just turned out that it was a pose I like.<\/p>\n

I’ve mentioned my friend Murphy from Murphy’s law before. Ol’ Murph is an almost constant companion of mine and this time I didn’t escape him either, as evidenced by my ridiculous ISO and aperture settings. But occasionally Ol’ Murph has his own Murphy sitting on his shoulder and this time his evil intentions for this image were foiled (although you\u00a0 can imagine what my takeoff shot for this bird looks like…).<\/p>\n

But my personal Murphy came back while I was preparing this post. I’m having server problems this morning so I don’t even know if I’ll be able to publish this edition of Feathered Photography and if I can viewers may have difficulties loading it. We’re working on it but…<\/p>\n

what will be will be.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes things go right even when you screw up. I just wish it happened more often.<\/p>\n

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