![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/common-raven-0370b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"common-raven-0370b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPerhaps the most aggravating species I try to photograph.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 1000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Common as they are around here ravens are one of my most difficult subjects – right up there with kingfishers and, dare I say it, Golden Eagles.<\/p>\n I swear, it’s ingrained in their DNA to vamoose a split second before I get my lens on them and I mean that literally. I’m convinced it’s because they’ve been shot as vermin for so many generations that whenever a vehicle stops for them, or someone aims something long at them (like a rifle or a big lens) they’re out’a here. They just don’t like attention from humans, they’re that smart.<\/p>\n This shot may or may not be up to my usual standards but it’s a wild raven (as opposed to semi-tame birds found in places like National Parks where many are highly acclimated to humans) so I’m going with it. I took this shot this past Christmas Eve Day just after the bird took off from the flats at Farmington Bay WMA. The raven is fairly small in the frame but I like the flight posture and the good exposure and detail on those dense, photon-sucking blacks. And I think the bird’s shadow adds to the image.<\/p>\n In my neck of the woods I typically don’t even stop my pickup for ravens anymore because they’re so reliably and aggravatingly uncooperative. Even slowing down will often flush them but if they do hang around for that long the instant my vehicle rocks back to a complete stop they’re almost invariably already gone. That very thing happened again yesterday with a raven in the west desert which probably led to the subject of this post. I do tend to dwell on failure.<\/p>\n I don’t like to cuss birds but when I do it’s typically a raven. I simply don’t need any more “air shots” of where ravens used to be.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Perhaps the most aggravating species I try to photograph.<\/p>\n