Thursday, October 8, 2009

And a Hawk Takes Flight




I am blessed to live in a very amazing place.  

I have a house in Mather, CA.  We are surrounded by open fields that are environmentally protected land.  They are filled with vernal pools and ponds, their are hawks, eagles, egrets, kites (the bird, not the toy), coyotes, and all kinds of other fun stuff.  On top of this, my house backs up to one of these fields, complete with creek.  I can sit in my back yard, on my patio furniture...enjoying a glass of wine with my wife and watch the hawks fly over our heads.

For the last few years I've been hoping to get a good shot of a hawk or eagle...but as yet, the timing hasn't been great.  Well....this week it all came together...

I was driving out of the neighborhood, on my way to meet a client, when I saw this beautiful hawk sitting on a sign relaxing.  At first I was concerned he was injured, since he was holding his week out at a weird angle.  I realized after a minute of watching him that he was just cleaning and fluffing his feathers. 
I had my camera on the seat, with a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens on the camera...but that just wasn't going to get me close enough.  I KNEW it and didn't want to waste the chance I finally had.
Luckily, sitting on the back seat was a big gun....my two foot long zoom up to 750mm that I use for sports.  I quickly changed lenses and stepped out of the car.
I took a moment to take stock of my situation...see how far I was from the hawk (not too close yet) and look through the lens to see how my shot looked so far.
...I sighed in frustration....  Even with this mega lens...he was still just a small spot in the frame.  This was NOT the photograph I was looking for.

I took a second and set camera up.    I took a spot meter reading of the light with my camera light meter... set my shot up in manual mode (details for you photographers out there..) with the exposure to be a little bright (using ETTR, Exposing To The Right)... I set my lens to manual focus.  As fast as cameras and lenses are these days...the time it's going to take to focus if the hawk takes off...well...just take to long.  Also, I make sure my lens is set to Image Stabilization.

Ok...so here is my dilemma.  I'm going to walk toward this hawk...very slowly, trying not to scare him.  I'm hand holding my camera...which any photographer out there is going to say..oh my...really?  Why?  Because it is VERY hard to hand hold a 750mm lens....besides being HEAVY...what you are looking at in the lens jumps around...you have to have a VERY steady hand.  Plus, you tend to get a lot of blurring of the image.  
Second problem...as I move forward, I'm losing my focus (since I'm on manual focus)

So I set the camera to my eye, and old the lens out...kinda like it were a rifle, fingers on the focus ring...shifting the focus as I move.  With my feet spread wide, I start moving forward VERY slowly!  VERY slowly!  I can't see my feet...so I have to kinda..slide them forward.  
Oh...was this a VERY painstaking and tiring process.  My arms are burning from holding the lens out there...but I can't rest my arms and risk him moving. 

 Plus, he is WATCHING me.  Oh yes.  The reflection on my lens probably caught his attention, and I'm afraid if I lowered my camera he would spook and fly.  As it was...he was tensed and ready to spring.  So I kept going...15, maybe 20 minutes..maybe less..it felt like forever.

And finally...He DID spring.  He launched himself in the air, moving at a speed that I just couldn't believe.  I was ready...and starting firing shots off as fast as I could.  And even shoting a burst of about 12 shots in TWO seconds...I managed to get about...oh...5 in the frame.

Yes... it took him about 2 seconds to travel about 10 feet.  It was amazing.

I was VERY pleased when I got home and found that I finally caught a shot I have been trying for for years.  And it only inspired me to get MORE!

Enjoy!!

Sean Thomas Bjers

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