FREEDOM.
Did you know you have to go to Canada to get into the US? In Vancouver BC, there is this small bit of land that belongs to the US. Its Point Roberts, Washington. Its a little Peninsula and the only way to get to it is from Canada. I wonder if Trump knows about this place. Either way many people including myself drive across to fill up the tank! I mean its only 15 minutes or so drive from my house. There is one supermarket, 1 bank, 1 hardware store, a library, a barber, around 6 post offices, a sheriff and 5 gas stations and a couple small restaurants. Yeah that's about it.. so little that you can name them all. There are people that do live there, but there is nothing much! You gotta come into Canada to do the good shopping. Google maps it and have a look!
One day I was just down there along the beach, and I saw this eagle sitting on this wooden post in the water. I thought it be a really cool photo. I knew I had my camera gear in the car. The car was close enough to where you can see it, but it's not the easiest path to access because of the little hill of rocks you gotta climb over. I ran frantically in hoping Id get back in time before he would fly away. Quickly opened my trunk, pulled out the 5D, swapped lens' for the 70-200. Ran back.. and.. he was goneee!!!!! : (
But then I spotted him flying in the distance. Man he was high. By the time i got down to the water, he was just swooping down and all the time i had was enough to turn on the camera, look through the viewfinder and make sure my shutter speed was super fast.
Click. Click. Click
Canon 5D Mark IV with a 70-200mm f2.8L IS II - 1/3200sec f4, ISO400
THIS was 1 of ONLY 3 shots that I captured of the bird. I managed to get a frame that was sharp, in focus and with its wings in a beautiful formation, just above the ground.
The Technical Side
Wow. I was lucky. I was just impressed with how fast and accurate the camera handled something like that in a very short amount of time. The 1DX AF system in the 5D4 really paid off. It worked when I needed it to. And it did a fantastic job. I did not have time to set it to high speed continuous shooting. So I just relied on my clicking speed, I could have shot more frames, but it came at a cost as I took the little extra time to make sure I was going to be focused because I had my focus AF point to a single point and not to a ZONE af where it would have been a lot better. But I did not want to risk changing it because I knew i would only have less than 4 seconds to capture the bird flying low to the ground.
I don't really do wildlife photography so I don't know much of the art, but I was very pleased with the image I captured!
I have to say though, the whole sequence of events, were really fun. I can see how exciting it is to shoot wildlife. You never know what you'll get and sometimes you gotta have a bit of luck when dealing with mother nature and its creatures. Im not saying this is a winning shot. But when you get something you really like especially for something you don't really do. It truly is very satisfying. And I can understand even more, the awesome thrill wildlife shooters go through. Unless of course you know you're going to be sitting in one spot for 8 hours...
Let me know what you guys think!
Thanks for the browse.
Joel