![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/bald-eagle-3877-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"bald-eagle-3877-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nHaving mountains so close to many of my favorite birding locations is a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n
The majority of my habitual bird photography locations butt up against the west side of the Wasatch Mountains. Typically the mountains rise over a mile above the valley floor so they cast a giant shadow to the west for a long time after official sunrise which means I miss out on most of the well known ‘golden hour’ of beautiful warm light. Since birds are often most active in the early morning I miss a big chunk of the best shooting time.<\/p>\n
And those mountains bite me for a second reason. Most of our clouds and weather systems approach from the west or northwest and when they hit the mountains they’re typically stuck there for an inordinate amount of time. Clouds hanging over the mountains often keep my shooting locations in shade for much of the morning when there’s nothing but blue sky and sunshine everywhere else. Whoever coined the phrase “mountains make their own weather” knew what they were talking about.<\/p>\n
Farmington Bay WMA is especially prone to this unfortunate phenomenon because it sits in a jog in the mountains that funnels clouds over that area and keeps them there. For 13 years now I’ve called it the\u00a0 “Farmington Curse”.<\/p>\n
But the mountains can also be a huge asset to the bird photographer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/1000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n They often provide backgrounds for my flight shots that I like very much. I’m generally not a huge fan of plain blue sky or white sky (high key) backgrounds but I can very often get mountains in the background and I nearly always like having them there. Those kinds of backgrounds are unavailable to most bird photographers so they provide a distinctive flavor to many of my flight shots.<\/p>\n This is an older photo of an adult Bald Eagle at Farmington in winter that illustrates my point. In winter the sun is far to the south so I have good side light on the eagle but the mountains in the background are still in shade so they provide a dark and non-homogenous backdrop that I find much more interesting than plain blue or white sky backgrounds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’ve never posted this photo before for a reason that borders on silly. I have a habit of judging sharpness by the crispness of the eye, particularly the pupil or catch light if either or both can be seen. But this eagle has what photographers sometimes call a ‘blown eye’, damage to the eye that distorts the pupil shape, resulting in a pupil that isn’t as well defined as I’d expect from a sharp photo.<\/p>\n So at first glance the eye doesn’t look as sharp to me as it should be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But a tight crop of the same photo reveals that it’s plenty sharp, especially for a bird in flight. It also shows the blown eye in much better detail and highlights the presumed fish blood on the tip of its bill.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So I’ll take my mountains, even though they can be a curse as well as a blessing. They’re eye candy for the casual observer as well.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having mountains so close to many of my favorite birding locations is a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/bald-eagle-3877-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"bald-eagle-3877-big-crop-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n